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No detectable role for predators mediating effects of aquatic habitat size and permanence on populations and communities of container?dwelling mosquitoes.

ABSTRACT: General theory from aquatic ecology predicts that smaller aquatic habitats have shorter hydroperiods favouring species that are better resource competitors and complete development quickly. Larger habitats are predicted to have longer hydroperiods enabling longer-lived predators to persist. Habitats with long hydroperiods and predators are predicted to favour slower-developing, predator resistant species, rather than competitive species.In a field experiment, we manipulated independently habitat size and hydroperiod in water-filled containers, to test these hypotheses about processes structuring aquatic communities. We used human-made containers that are dominated by mosquitoes that vary in desiccation resistance, competitive ability, and predation resistance.Habitat size and drying had significant effects on abundances of larvae of the common species in these communities. There was sorting of species by habitat size and by drying, with species that are better competitors relatively more abundant in smaller, more ephemeral habitats, and predator resistant, slower-developing species relatively more abundant in larger or permanently flooded habitats. There were no detectable effects of habitat size or drying on the dominant predator.Habitat size and its interaction with drying affected inputs of eggs to containers. Habitat size also affected relative abundances of the two dominant species in the egg population.Although habitat size and hydroperiod significantly affected composition of these communities, these impacts did not appear to be mediated through effects on predator abundance. Species specific differences in habitat size and drying regime preferences, and habitat-dependent larval performance appear to be the main forces shaping these communities.

SUBMITTER: Westby KM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5612503 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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No detectable role for predators mediating effects of aquatic habitat size and permanence on populations and communities of container‐dwelling mosquitoes.

Westby Katie M KM Juliano Steven A SA

Ecological Entomology. 20170406 4

General theory from aquatic ecology predicts that smaller aquatic habitats have shorter hydroperiods favouring species that are better resource competitors and complete development quickly. Larger habitats are predicted to have longer hydroperiods enabling longer-lived predators to persist. Habitats with long hydroperiods and predators are predicted to favour slower-developing, predator resistant species, rather than competitive species.In a field experiment, we manipulated independently habitat ...[more]

PMID: 28959086

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Project description:Predator-mediated coexistence of competitors occurs when a species that is superior in competition is also more vulnerable to a shared predator compared to a poorer competitor. The invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus is usually competitively superior to Ochlerotatus triseriatus. Among second instar larvae, A. albopictus show a lesser degree of behavioral modification in response to water-borne cues from predation by the larval midge Corethrella appendiculata than do O. triseriatus, rendering A. albopictus more vulnerable to predation by C. appendiculata than O. triseriatus. The hypothesis that C. appendiculata predation favors coexistence of these competitors predicts that C. appendiculata abundances will be negatively and positively correlated with A. albopictus and O. triseriatus abundances, respectively, and that coexistence will occur where C. appendiculata are common. Actual abundances of O. triseriatus, A. albopictus, and C. appendiculata in three habitats fit this prediction. In natural container habitats like tree holes, C. appendiculata were abundant and competitors co-existed at similar densities. In cemeteries and tires, which occur primarily in non-forested, human-dominated habitats, A. albopictus dominated, with abundances twice those found in tree holes, but C. appendiculata and O. triseriatus were rare or absent. We also tested for whether antipredatory behavioral responses of A. albopictus differed among habitats or populations, or were correlated with local C. appendiculata abundances. We could detect no differences in A. albopictus antipredatory behavioral responses to water-borne cues from predation. Tree hole habitats appear to promote co-existence of O. triseriatus and A. albopictus through interactions with predatory C. appendiculata, and this predator effect appears to limit invasion success of A. albopictus in tree holes. There are many studies on predator-mediated coexistence in natural habitats but to our knowledge this is the first study to suggest differential predator-mediated coexistence between natural and man-made habitats.

Dataset Information

No detectable role for predators mediating effects of aquatic habitat size and permanence on populations and communities of container?dwelling mosquitoes.

Publications

No detectable role for predators mediating effects of aquatic habitat size and permanence on populations and communities of container‐dwelling mosquitoes.

Similar Datasets

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