Biotic and abiotic influences on aggressive interactions within larval Ambystoma assemblages

Author

Cy Larue Mott, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2010

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Zoology

First Advisor

Sparling, Donald

Abstract

Coexistence among ecologically similar species is often facilitated through temporal or spatial partitioning mechanisms that reduce or eliminate direct interaction. However, in many communities exhibiting guild structure, wherein potential competitors may also prey on one another, sympatric relationships persist despite species' similar life history strategies, spatial and temporal restrictions imposed by ephemeral habitats, and resource limitations that promote competition and predation. To identify the ecological roles of species-specific behavioral patterns within aquatic guilds, I quantified larval intraspecific agonistic behavior among two species of intraguild (IG) predators, Ambystoma opacum and A. tigrinum, and their shared intraguild prey, A. maculatum. All species exhibited similar ontogenetic patterns of aggression, characterized by peaks of aggression early in development and subsequent gradual decreases through metamorphosis. However, the intensity of aggression varied considerably among guild species through development, as did behavioral responses to varying levels of ambient water temperature, invertebrate prey density, and presence of predatory odonate naiads. The observed patterns suggest that guild species, despite morphological and physiological similarities, exhibit unique behavioral responses through ontogeny and in response to habitat variables, suggesting that temporally staggered breeding phenologies have contributed to behavioral divergence among these sympatric congeners. However, in situ observations of larval behavior, although largely in agreement with laboratory results on timing of increased aggression, indicated that IG predators exhibited pond-level species partitioning and do not necessarily co-occur despite being regarded as sympatric. These results, taken together with observed species-specific impacts of IG predators on IG prey, suggest that ecologically similar IG predators exert widely differing predatory pressure on shared prey, and that similarities among guild species may ultimately result in habitat partitioning across local scales.