Abstract
It has been suggested that when juveniles and adults use different resources or habitats, alternative stable states (ASS) may exist in systems coupled by an ontogenetic niche shift. However, mainly the simplest system, i.e., the one-consumer–two-resource system, has been studied previously, and little is known about the development of ASS existing in more complex systems. Here, I theoretically investigated the development of ASS caused by an ontogenetic niche shift in the presence of multiple resource use. I considered three independent scenarios; (i) additional resources, (ii) multiple habitats, and (iii) interstage resource sharing. The model analyses illustrate that relative balance between the total resource availability in the juvenile and adult habitats is crucial for the development of ASS. This balance is determined by factors such as local habitat productivity, subsidy inputs, colonization area, and foraging mobility. Furthermore, it is also shown that interstage resource sharing generally suppresses ASS. These results suggest that the anthropogenic impacts of habitat modifications (e.g., fragmentation and destruction) or interaction modifications (e.g., changes in ontogeny and foraging behavior) propagate through space and may cause or prevent regime shifts in the regional community structure.
Highlights
Many animals change their resource or habitat use during the course of individual growth; such a change is known as ontogenetic niche shift [1], [2]
I theoretically investigated the development of alternative stable states (ASS) resulting from ontogenetic habitat coupling in the presence of multiple resource use in different scenarios (Fig. 1)
All the results demonstrated that multiple resource use critically affects coupled food-web dynamics and the development of ASS (Fig. 2)
Summary
Many animals change their resource or habitat use during the course of individual growth; such a change is known as ontogenetic niche shift [1], [2]. When an animal uses different habitats at different stages, ontogenetic niche shifts have spatially spreading demographic impacts (e.g., [3,4,5,6]). In the field of spatial ecology, different theories have recently been developed from a variety of viewpoints, including metacommunity (e.g., [7]), spatial subsidy and cross-ecosystem linkage (e.g., [8]), food-web theory (e.g., [9]), and meta-ecosystem (e.g., [10]). These theories have rarely considered ontogenetic niche shifts as a major coupling factor of spatially distinct food webs. Little is known about how spatial food-web dynamics are mediated by ontogenetic niches shifts, despite that such mediation is a fairly common occurrence in nature [3,4,5,6] (see a review in [11])
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