Abstract
Interspecific competition between sympatric related species leading to character displacement is critical for species coexistence, especially in tropical habitats. We examined microhabitat use of two sympatric species of tropical lizards of the genus Holcosus in relationship to the microhabitats available in two ecosystems. The species H. festivus lives exclusively in the forest and uses microhabitats in proportion to their availability; while the other, H. quadrilineatus, lives both in forest and on the beach and selects microhabitats with specific characteristics. In the ecosystem where these two lizards live in sympatry (forest), we observed a differential microhabitat use between the two species. However, these differences indicated changes in habitat use by H. quadrilineatus (the smaller species) concerning its patterns of habitat selection in the ecosystem (beach) where only this species occurs. The age of the lizards did not affect the patterns of selection of microhabitats of either species. Shifts in microhabitat use may allow coexistence in sympatry of both species, which might result from the competitive exclusion of the smaller species by the larger species. Key words: Interspecific competition, Holcosus, Lizards, Microhabitat use, Tropical habitats
Highlights
Interspecific competition has an important effect driving evolutionary and ecological diversification because when two or more species undergo intense competition for similar resources such as food or habitat (Begon et al, 1996; Dhont, 2011), they can diverge by ecological character displacement (Day and Young, 2004; Stuart and Losos, 2013)
The principal components analysis (PCA) performed with all microhabitat variables produced six principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues greater than 1, which together accounted for 64.4 % of the explained variance
Considering the results of the availability and use of the microhabitats, we found that the two Holcosus lizard species differed in their general strategies of microhabitat use
Summary
Interspecific competition has an important effect driving evolutionary and ecological diversification because when two or more species undergo intense competition for similar resources such as food or habitat (Begon et al, 1996; Dhont, 2011), they can diverge by ecological character displacement (Day and Young, 2004; Stuart and Losos, 2013). Ontogenetic changes in size or any ecological aspect should be accounted for because these may differentially affect the intensity of potential competition, which may be age–specific (e.g., Smith 1981). Through these studies, it will be possible to determine factors that condition the life of the species, being able to approximate the impact that human activity may cause them (Böhm et al, 2013)
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