Abstract
The patterns of species co-occurrence have long served as a primary approach to explore concepts of interspecific interaction. However, the interpretation of such patterns is difficult as they can result from several complex ecological processes, in a scale-dependent manner. Here, we aim to investigate the co-occurrence pattern between European rabbit and wild boar in an estate in Central Portugal, using two-species occupancy modelling. With this framework, we tested species interaction for occupancy and detection, but also the interdependencies between both parameters. According to our results, the wild boar and European rabbit occurred independently in the study area. However, model averaging of the detection parameters revealed a potential positive effect of wild boar’s presence on rabbit’s detection probability. Upon further analysis of the parameter interdependencies, our results suggested that failing to account for a positive effect on rabbit’s detection could lead to potentially biased interpretations of the co-occurrence pattern. Our study, in spite of preliminary, highlights the need to understand these different pathways of species interaction to avoid erroneous inferences.
Highlights
Understanding the patterns of species co-occurrence is of fundamental interest for many fields of ecological research
European rabbit’s naïve occupancy was 0.36 (26 of the 73 sites), which contrasts with the wild boar with 0.80 naïve occupancy (58 out of 73 sites; Fig. 1)
Our study explored the different pathways of European rabbit and wild boar interaction in an agroforestry farmstead
Summary
Understanding the patterns of species co-occurrence is of fundamental interest for many fields of ecological research. A multi-level approach is important because a fine scale avoidance behaviour by the subordinate species could www.nature.com/scientificreports reduce detectability and lead to an overestimation of the spatial exclusion pattern. These behaviours alter soil composition and pH levels, decomposition processes[24] and can reduce nearly 80% of the herbaceous cover[25], reducing plant diversity and regeneration These effects on micro-habitat structure may cause the European rabbit to alter the intensity of fine scale space use when wild boar is present, potentially avoiding rooted areas and searching for cover[26]. We included habitat covariates to try to disentangle the effect of wild boar’s presence from shared habitat preferences Testing such hypotheses will further contribute to comprehend the complexity of species co-occurrence patterns and their implications for future research
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