Resource partitioning and competition for shells between intertidal hermit crabs on the outer coast of Washington

Summary

Resource partitioning was quantified for 6 species of intertidal hermit crabs in the genus Pagurus, that occur on the outer coast of Washington. This, together with field evidence of shell shortage and with laboratory experiments to quantify the mechanism of interactions for shells, allowed estimation of the relative intensities of inter-and intraspecific competition between these species. The findings were that: (1) the magnitude of intraspecific competition was greater than any single interspecific competitive effect for all of the species; and (2) the relative proportion of intraspecific competition was greater for the middle and upper intertidal species than for the lower intertidal species. Studies at several outer coast sites supported these generalizations. Both of these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that competitive divergence has occurred in the past. The structure of the outer coast hermit crab assemblage is compared with that of the San Juan Archipelago hermit crab assemblage. Differences between the two do not seem to be the result of adaptive responses to the presence of more competing species in the former group.