Space is a critical component of ecological niches (Price 1978; Kotler & Brown 1988). dividing up use of the resources in such a way that the species don't have to compete with one another, a greater after being grazed.) Niche theory is fundamental to understanding species coexistence (Chase & Liebold 2003). Note: SPDA: Spermophilus dauricus; ALSI: Allactaga sibirica; CRBA: Cricetulus barabensis; PHCA: Phodopus campbelli; PHRO: Phodopus roborovskii; APPE: Apodemus peninsulae; DISA: Dipus sagitta; MIMA: Microtus maximowiczii; MIGR: Micotus gregalis; MYSH: Myodes shanseius; OCDA: Ochotona dauurica; RANO: Rattus norvegicus. 2003). One common example is the distribution of lizards in the Caribbean islands. The density of the grazing zebra population at one month after the peak rain is at its maximum, then decreases to nearly zero Relative grazer density at different times after the Panicum maximum is a typical savanna grass; its growing season starts after the peak rains and continues for six months. venosus, were investigated. Spatial niche partitioning Dietary niche partitioning Niche partitioning by plant height Niche partitioning by time and Why do you think this is so? The shrub habitat hosted the largest number of small mammal species among the three types of habitats, supporting the productivity hypothesis. The density of the wildebeest grazing population is nearly zero until two months after the rain and then increases to its At about 5 months after Multidimensional scaling analysis of small mammal assemblages in the habitats (a) on the south-facing slope, (b) on the north-facing slope and (c) in the between-dunes valley of sand dunes, Inner Mongolia, China. 2007; Wallgren et al. We also took three measurements of soil hardness (kg/cm2) in a 3-m interval along the middle line between the two trap lines on each trapping plot (i.e., a total of 90 measurements across 10 sand dunes). has lots of stems and is relatively low quality. Small mammal assemblages would separate in multidimensional scale space if the space use or spatial niche of small mammal communities separated among habitat types. correspond to grazers. Additionally, plant height differed among the three habitat types (F2, 27 = 82.51, P < 0.001; Figure 1b). In this case, the x-axis, NMDS1, is The term niche differentiation (also known as niche segregation, niche separation and niche partitioning), as it applies to the field of ecology, refers to the process by which competing species use the environment differently in a way that helps them to coexist. Unformatted text preview: 2015 Holiday Lectures on Science Spermophilus dauricus, MIMA and MIGR were found only in the grassland habitat (Table I). 2. we are analyzing the diet of every single individual in terms of what it ate and trying to find similarities or The soil of the valley (9.5 ± 0.32 kg/cm2) was harder than that of the south-facing slope (7.52 ± 0.47 kg/cm2; tgrass-desert = 3.59, df = 18, P = 0.003) and that of the north-facing slope (6.3 ± 0.51 kg/cm2; tgrass-shrub = 5.39, df = 18, P < 0.001). What does this new data contribute to our understanding of the grazer-browser spectrum and dietary How could these data inform a. Varying prey species maintains biodiversity. The shrub habitat had the tallest, most dense vegetation and the greatest small mammal species richness in the sand dunes (Figure 1; Table I). Explain with data from above. Spermophilus dauricus was present only in the grass habitat, Allactaga sibirica and Dipus sagitta only in the desert habitat, and Apodemus peninsulae primarily in the shrub habitat. Forest species Apodemus peninsulae (APPE) and Myodes shanseius (MYSH) had significant spatial niche overlap with each other and with MIMA and OCDA (Table II).