Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers
Studies of interference competition among foraging animals generally assume that variation in the spatial distribution of food can be neglected. This assumption may be problematic as resource defence experiments suggest that such variation is of the essence in some interference mechanisms. Interpret...
Published in: | Animal Behaviour |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
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Language: | English |
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2007
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11370/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/10229145/2007AnimBehavVahl.pdf |
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ftunigroningenpu:oai:pure.rug.nl:publications/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 2024-09-15T17:54:39+00:00 Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers Vahl, Wouter K. Van der Meer, Jaap Meijer, Kim Piersma, Theunis Weissing, Franz J. 2007-11 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11370/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/10229145/2007AnimBehavVahl.pdf eng eng https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Vahl , W K , Van der Meer , J , Meijer , K , Piersma , T & Weissing , F J 2007 , ' Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers ' , Animal Behaviour , vol. 74 , no. 5 , pp. 1493-1503 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 Arenaria interpres field experiment foraging behaviour ideal-free-distribution resource defence ruddy turnstone DARK-EYED JUNCOS HOUSE SPARROWS RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION RUDDY TURNSTONES DELAWARE BAY AGGRESSION SIZE AGGREGATION DISPERSION INTENSITY article 2007 ftunigroningenpu https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 2024-07-01T14:49:22Z Studies of interference competition among foraging animals generally assume that variation in the spatial distribution of food can be neglected. This assumption may be problematic as resource defence experiments suggest that such variation is of the essence in some interference mechanisms. Interpretation of the results of field experiments on this topic, however, is hard because most studies used univariate statistics to analyse multivariate data. Because in free-living foragers interference and patch selection are connected behaviours, treatment effects on these responses are best studied simultaneously, through multivariate analyses. We performed a field experiment in which we provided wild ruddy turnstones, Arenaria interpres, with experimental plots that varied in the distance between a fixed number of so-called food pits, and, using multivariate statistics, we studied effects on the combination of the turnstones' behaviour and abundance. We found that when food pits were more spaced out, turnstones were present in higher numbers, while interacting less with each other. Nevertheless, turnstones spent about the same amount of time digging for food, our measure of intake rate, at each interpit distance. These findings imply that to reliably predict the combination of the number, intake rate and aggression of turnstones, the spatial distribution of food has to be known. We would not have reached this conclusion if we had used univariate statistics. In addition, we argue that multivariate statistics helps to clarify the way field experiments on the spatial distribution of food are to be interpreted. (c) 2007 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arenaria interpres Ruddy Turnstone University of Groningen research database Animal Behaviour 74 5 1493 1503 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Groningen research database |
op_collection_id |
ftunigroningenpu |
language |
English |
topic |
Arenaria interpres field experiment foraging behaviour ideal-free-distribution resource defence ruddy turnstone DARK-EYED JUNCOS HOUSE SPARROWS RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION RUDDY TURNSTONES DELAWARE BAY AGGRESSION SIZE AGGREGATION DISPERSION INTENSITY |
spellingShingle |
Arenaria interpres field experiment foraging behaviour ideal-free-distribution resource defence ruddy turnstone DARK-EYED JUNCOS HOUSE SPARROWS RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION RUDDY TURNSTONES DELAWARE BAY AGGRESSION SIZE AGGREGATION DISPERSION INTENSITY Vahl, Wouter K. Van der Meer, Jaap Meijer, Kim Piersma, Theunis Weissing, Franz J. Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
topic_facet |
Arenaria interpres field experiment foraging behaviour ideal-free-distribution resource defence ruddy turnstone DARK-EYED JUNCOS HOUSE SPARROWS RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION RUDDY TURNSTONES DELAWARE BAY AGGRESSION SIZE AGGREGATION DISPERSION INTENSITY |
description |
Studies of interference competition among foraging animals generally assume that variation in the spatial distribution of food can be neglected. This assumption may be problematic as resource defence experiments suggest that such variation is of the essence in some interference mechanisms. Interpretation of the results of field experiments on this topic, however, is hard because most studies used univariate statistics to analyse multivariate data. Because in free-living foragers interference and patch selection are connected behaviours, treatment effects on these responses are best studied simultaneously, through multivariate analyses. We performed a field experiment in which we provided wild ruddy turnstones, Arenaria interpres, with experimental plots that varied in the distance between a fixed number of so-called food pits, and, using multivariate statistics, we studied effects on the combination of the turnstones' behaviour and abundance. We found that when food pits were more spaced out, turnstones were present in higher numbers, while interacting less with each other. Nevertheless, turnstones spent about the same amount of time digging for food, our measure of intake rate, at each interpit distance. These findings imply that to reliably predict the combination of the number, intake rate and aggression of turnstones, the spatial distribution of food has to be known. We would not have reached this conclusion if we had used univariate statistics. In addition, we argue that multivariate statistics helps to clarify the way field experiments on the spatial distribution of food are to be interpreted. (c) 2007 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vahl, Wouter K. Van der Meer, Jaap Meijer, Kim Piersma, Theunis Weissing, Franz J. |
author_facet |
Vahl, Wouter K. Van der Meer, Jaap Meijer, Kim Piersma, Theunis Weissing, Franz J. |
author_sort |
Vahl, Wouter K. |
title |
Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
title_short |
Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
title_full |
Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
title_fullStr |
Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
title_sort |
interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11370/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/10229145/2007AnimBehavVahl.pdf |
genre |
Arenaria interpres Ruddy Turnstone |
genre_facet |
Arenaria interpres Ruddy Turnstone |
op_source |
Vahl , W K , Van der Meer , J , Meijer , K , Piersma , T & Weissing , F J 2007 , ' Interference competition, the spatial distribution of food and free-living foragers ' , Animal Behaviour , vol. 74 , no. 5 , pp. 1493-1503 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 |
op_relation |
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/093def94-427d-46b0-9216-1d0afb1f9e86 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.006 |
container_title |
Animal Behaviour |
container_volume |
74 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1493 |
op_container_end_page |
1503 |
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1810430988821463040 |