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Temporal niche segregation in two rodent assemblages of subtropical Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2009

Ivan Castro-Arellano  and
Thomas E. Lacher Jr.
Ivan Castro-Arellano*
Affiliation:
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843–2258, USA
Thomas E. Lacher Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843–2258, USA Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA 22202, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Current address: Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-4210, USA. Email: ivan.castro@Uconn.edu or neotomodon@hotmail.com
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Abstract:

Temporal niche partitioning can be a viable mechanism for coexistence, but has received less attention than other niche axes. We characterized and compared patterns of activity, and overlap of temporal activity among the five common rodent species from a tropical semideciduous forest (TSF) and between the two common rodent species from cloud forest (CF) at El Cielo Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Capture frequencies over 2-h intervals, obtained via live trapping (6850 trap-nights) in chosen months over 3 y formed the empirical basis for analyses. Trap transects were set from 19h00 to 07h00 and checked every 2 h. Analyses of 484 captures evinced two distinct assemblages. The TSF assemblage was diverse and with non-random temporal niche segregation, whereas the CF assemblage was depauperate with its two dominant species evincing the same activity pattern. Predator avoidance between open- and closed-microhabitat species, as well as niche complementarity may explain temporal segregation at TSF. This is the first documentation of assemblage-wide non-random temporal segregation of neotropical rodents. Time of activity may be a largely under-appreciated mechanism in other species-rich tropical rodent assemblages as well as in other species-rich biotas.

Keywords

activity patternschronoecologycommunity structureEl Cielo Biosphere ReserveMexiconiche overlapnull modeltemporal niche partitioningrodents
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 25 , Issue 6 , November 2009 , pp. 593 - 603
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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