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Facilitation may not be an adequate mechanism of community succession on carrion

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Abstract

The facilitation model of ecological succession was advanced by plant ecologists in the late 1970s and was then introduced to carrion ecology in the late 1980s, without empirical evidence of its applicability. Ecologists in both disciplines proposed removing early colonists, in this case fly eggs and larvae, from the substrate to determine whether other species could still colonize, which to our knowledge has never been attempted. Here, we tested the facilitation model in a carrion system by removing fly eggs and larvae from carcasses that were exposed in agricultural fields and assigned to one of the following treatment levels of removal intensity: 0, <5, 50, and 100%. Subsequent patterns of colonisation did not provide support for the applicability of the facilitation model in carrion systems. Although results showed, in part, that the removal of fly eggs and larvae decreased the decomposition rate of carcasses, the removal did not prevent colonization by secondary colonizers. Finally, we discuss future studies and make recommendations as to how the facilitation model could be improved, firstly by being more specific about the scale where facilitation is believed to be occurring, secondly by clearly stating what environmental modification is believed to be involved, and thirdly by disentangling facilitation from priority effects.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, Frank Gandiaga, Alexandre Mourant, J.-P. Privé, Kenneth Schoenly, and Monic Thibault for their comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Jessy Phillips for her assistance with fieldwork. This study was financially supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grants to Gaétan Moreau, and A250 program Grant from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to J.-P. Michaud.

Author contribution statement

JPM and GM conceived and designed the experiment, JPM and others performed the field work, GM analyzed the data, JPM and GM wrote the manuscript. Although others have been involved at various stages of the experiment, no other person is entitled to authorship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Serious Crimes Branch, #200, 2 Highland Park Way, Airdrie, AB, T4A0R1, Canada

    Jean-Philippe Michaud

  2. Département de biologie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, E1A 3E9, Canada

    Jean-Philippe Michaud & Gaétan Moreau

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  1. Jean-Philippe Michaud
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  2. Gaétan Moreau
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Correspondence to Jean-Philippe Michaud.

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Communicated by Nina Farwig.

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Michaud, JP., Moreau, G. Facilitation may not be an adequate mechanism of community succession on carrion. Oecologia 183, 1143–1153 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-017-3818-3

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