Abstract
Ecologically dominant species can shape the assembly of ecological communities via altering competitive outcomes. Moreover, these effects may be amplified under limited niche differentiation. Nevertheless, the influences of ecological dominance and niche differentiation on assembly are rarely considered together. Here, we provide a novel examination of dominance in a diverse arboreal ant community, defining dominance by the prevalent usage of nesting resources and addressing how it influences community assembly. We first used a series of quantitative observational and experimental studies to address the natural nesting ecology, colony incidence on surveyed trees, and level of dominance over newly available nesting resources by our focal species, Cephalotes pusillus. The experimental studies were then used further to examine whether C. pusillus shapes assembly via an influence on cavity usage by co-occurring species. C. pusillus was confirmed as a dominant user of cavity nesting resources, with highly generalized nesting ecology, occupying about 50% of the trees within the focal system, and accounting for more than a third of new cavity occupation in experiments. Our experiments showed further that the presence of C. pusillus was associated with modest effects on species richness, but significant decreases in cavity-occupation levels and significant shifts in the entrance-size usage by co-occurring species. These results indicate that C. pusillus, as a dominant user of nesting resources, shapes assembly at multiple levels. Broadly, our findings highlight that complex interactions between a dominant species and the resource-usage patterns of other species can underlie species assembly in diverse ecological communities.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank M. Gonzaga, R. Feitosa, R. Pacheco, S. Sendoya, and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on prior versions of this manuscript. We also would like to thank E.B.A. Koch, J. Vieira, and L. Silva for help in the field and processing material. This work was funded by National Science Foundation grants DEB 0842144 for all authors. FC and SP had additional funding from National Science Foundation grant DEB 1442256 and the George Washington University. FC and HLV had additional funding from the Brazilian Council of Research and Scientific Development (CNPQ), and the Brazilian Ministry for Education (MEC/CAPES).
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FC, HLV, RJM, and SP conceived and designed the study. FC, HLV, RJM, and SP performed the data collection. FC, HLV, and SP analyzed the data. FC, HLV, RJM, and SP wrote the manuscript.
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Communicated by Konrad Fiedler.
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Camarota, F., Vasconcelos, H.L., Marquis, R.J. et al. Revisiting ecological dominance in arboreal ants: how dominant usage of nesting resources shapes community assembly. Oecologia 194, 151–163 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04748-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04748-z