The interaction between predation and competition: a review and synthesis
Jonathan M. Chase,Peter A. Abrams,James P. Grover,Sebastian Diehl,Peter Chesson,Robert D. Holt,Shane A. Richards,Roger M. Nisbet,Ted J. Case +8 more
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This review discusses the interface between two of the most important types of interactions between species, interspecific competition and predation, and distinguishes among three measures of the influence of predation on competitive outcomes: short-term per capita consumption or growth rates, long-term changes in density, and the probability of competitive coexistence.Abstract:
This review discusses the interface between two of the most important types of interactions between species, interspecific competition and predation. Predation has been claimed to increase, decrease, or have little effect on, the strength, impact or importance of interspecific competition. There is confusion about both the meaning of these terms and the likelihood of, and conditions required for, each of these outcomes. In this article we distinguish among three measures of the influence of predation on competitive outcomes: short-term per capita consumption or growth rates, long-term changes in density, and the probability of competitive coexistence. We then outline various theoretical mechanisms that can lead to qualitatively distinct effects of predators. The qualitative effect of predators can depend both on the mechanism of competition and on the definition of competitive strength/impact. In assessing the empirical literature, we ask: (1) What definitions of competitive strength/impact have been assumed? (2) Does strong evidence exist to support one or more of the possible mechanisms that can produce a given outcome? (3) Do biases in the choice of organism or manipulation exist, and are they likely to have influenced the conclusions reached? We conclude by discussing several unanswered questions, and espouse a stronger interchange between empirical and theoretical approaches to this important question.read more
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References
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Mechanisms of Maintenance of Species Diversity
TL;DR: Stabilizing mechanisms are essential for species coexistence and include traditional mechanisms such as resource partitioning and frequency-dependent predation, as well as mechanisms that depend on fluctuations in population densities and environmental factors in space and time.
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Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity
TL;DR: It is suggested that local animal species diversity is related to the number of predators in the system and their efficiency in preventing single species from monopolizing some important, limiting, requisite in the marine rocky intertidal.
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Herbivores and the Number of Tree Species in Tropical Forests
TL;DR: Any event that increases the efficiency of the predators at eating seeds and seedlings of a given tree species may lead to a reduction in population density of the adults of that species and/or to increased distance between new adults and their parents.
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Community Structure, Population Control, and Competition
TL;DR: Populations of producers, carnivores, and decomposers are limited by their respective resources in the classical density-dependent fashion and interspecific competition must necessarily exist among the members of each of these three trophic levels.
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Predation, Body Size, and Composition of Plankton
TL;DR: The effect of a marine planktivore on lake plankton illustrates theory of size, competition, and predation.