Abstract
Polymorphisms are suspected of reducing competition among conspecifics in heterogeneous environments by allowing differential resource use. However the adaptive significance of alternative morphs has been poorly documented. The aim of this study is to determine food partitioning of two heterochronic morphs of the Alpine newt, Triturus alpestris, in mountain lakes. The morphs differ in the functional morphology of their feeding apparatus. Only paedomorphs are able to expel water during prey suction behind the mouth through gill slits. We observed a substantial trophic differentiation between morphs in all lakes. Paedomorphs preyed mainly on plankton, whereas metamorphs foraged on terrestrial invertebrates that fell upon the water surface. This resource partitioning may facilitate the coexistence of the alternative morphs in lakes devoid of vertebrate competitors. Food diversity may thus favour the evolutionary maintenance of facultative polymorphism in natural populations.
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Acknowledgements
We thank R. Leclair, K. Ovaska, E. Pattee and three anonymous referees for their constructive comments on the manuscript; G. Hauseder and U. Schiftner for help with the field work; D. Vergos for providing us with housing facilities; E. Kamtsiou, J.-M. Izoard, N. Kosias and J.-L. Prieur for helping us with transport; and M. Breuil, G.H. Parent and K. Sotiropoulos for detailed information about the newt breeding sites. This research was authorised by the French and Greek Ministries of the Environment. M. Denoël is post-doctoral researcher at the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium).
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Denoël, M., Schabetsberger, R. & Joly, P. Trophic specialisations in alternative heterochronic morphs. Naturwissenschaften 91, 81–84 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0492-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0492-6