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Overdispersion of body size in Australian desert lizard communities at local scales only: no evidence for the Narcissus effect

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Abstract

Both local and regional processes may contribute to community diversity and structure at local scales. Although many studies have investigated patterns of local or regional community structure, few have addressed the extent to which local community structure influences patterns within regional species pools. Here we investigate the role of body size in community assembly at local and regional scales in Ctenotus lizards from arid Australia. Ctenotus has long been noted for its exceptional species diversity in the Australian arid-zone, and previous studies have attempted to elucidate the processes underlying species coexistence within communities of these lizards. However, no consensus has emerged on the role of interspecific competition in the assembly and maintenance of Ctenotus communities. We studied Ctenotus communities at several hundred sites in the arid interior of Australia to test the hypothesis that body sizes within local and regional Ctenotus assemblages should be overdispersed relative to null models of community assembly, and we explored the relationship between body size dispersion at local and regional scales. Results indicate a striking pattern of community-wide overdispersion of body size at local scales, as measured by the variance in size ratios among co-occurring species. However, we find no evidence for body size overdispersion within regional species pools, suggesting a lack of correspondence between processes influencing the distribution of species phenotypes at local and regional scales. We suggest that size ratio constancy in Ctenotus communities may have resulted from contemporary ecological interactions among species or ecological character displacement, and we discuss alternative explanations for the observed patterns.

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Acknowledgments

We thank D. Adams, A. Agrawal, M. Austin, H. Greene, L. Joseph, I. Lovette, A. McCune, and S. Morton for comments on the manuscript and/or valuable discussion of these topics. For assistance with survey design and other logistics, we thank S. Argus, G. Armstrong, L. Baker, P. Doughty, S. Eldridge, E. Foster, N. Gambold, M. Gillam, J. Gillen, M. Hutchinson, the late K. Jones, I. Kealley, K. Kenneally, A. Kerle, S. Morton, N. de Preu, and D. Stefoni. In addition, we thank the many individuals who assisted with other aspects of this project, including G. Allen, J. Alley, JM Armstrong, M. Barritt, B. Barton, K. Bellchambers, A. Brook, R. Burton, S. Campbell, D. Carter, V. Clarke, J. Cole, J. Coulter, M. Coulter, A. Duguid, M. Fleming, B. Gardiner, K. George, D. Gibson, D. Graham, A. Grattidge, Greenie, G. Hearle, R. How, J. and J. Kavanagh, D. Langford, B. Lewis, R. Lynch, C. Martin, D. Mason, G. McKenzie, J. Patten, N. Rabillier, A. Richardson, D. Risby, B. Ryan, D. Schunke, P. Spencer, L. Stokes, P-J. Waddell, A. Willson, A. Woosnam, and Conservation Volunteers Australia. We also thank the traditional owners from Willowra, Yuendemu and Mutitjulu for allowing us to conduct field work at the Lander River, Sangsters Bore and Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park sites, respectively. Funding for this study was provided by NSF-OSIE- 0612855, an EAPSI Fellowship to DLR, administered jointly by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Australian Academy of Science, and by Sigma Xi, the Evolutionary Biology Program at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, the Mario C. Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Goldfields and LANDSCOPE branches of the Western Australia Dept. for Environment and Conservation, and the Australian National Heritage Trust. Research conducted for this study conforms to current Australian law in every respect.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Daniel L. Rabosky

  2. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA

    Daniel L. Rabosky

  3. Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Julian Reid

  4. CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, GPO Box 284, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Julian Reid

  5. Department of Environment and Conservation, PO Box 51, Wanneroo, WA, 6946, Australia

    Mark A. Cowan

  6. Department for Environment and Heritage, PO Box 1047, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

    Jeff Foulkes

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  1. Daniel L. Rabosky
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Correspondence to Daniel L. Rabosky.

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Rabosky, D.L., Reid, J., Cowan, M.A. et al. Overdispersion of body size in Australian desert lizard communities at local scales only: no evidence for the Narcissus effect. Oecologia 154, 561–570 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0849-1

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