1. Model analyses show that the stability of population dynamics and food web persistence increase with the strength of interference competition. Despite this critical importance for community stability, little is known about how external factors such as the environmental temperature affect intraspecific interference competition. 2. We aimed to fill this void by studying the functional responses of two ground beetle species of different body size, Pterostichus melanarius and Poecilus versicolor. These functional response experiments were replicated across four predator densities and two temperatures to address the impact of temperature on intraspecific interference competition. 3. We generally expected that warming should increase the speed of movement, encounter rates and in consequence interference among predator individuals. In our experiment, this expectation was supported by the results obtained for the larger predator, P. melanarius, whereas the opposite pattern characterized the interference behaviour of the smaller predator P. versicolor. 4. These results suggest potentially nontrivial implications for the effects of environmental temperature on intraspecific interference competition, for which we propose an explanation based on the different sensitivity to warming of metabolic rates of both species. As expected, increasing temperature led to stronger interference competition of the larger species, P. melanarius, which exhibited a weaker increase in metabolic rate with increasing temperature. The stronger increase in the metabolic rate of the smaller predator, P. versicolor, had to be compensated by increasing searching activity for prey, which did not leave time for increasing interference. 5. Together, these results suggest that any generalization how interference competition responds to warming should also take the species' metabolic response to temperature increases into account.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01931.x | DOI Listing |
Am J Primatol
January 2025
School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Intergroup competition for limited resources is a significant selection pressure that drives the evolution of animal society. The rhesus macaque (Macaca Mulatta) is the most widely distributed nonhuman primate in the world and can adapt well to environments disturbed by humans. In some areas, human provisioning provides ample food resources for rhesus macaques, leading to an increase in their population size, inevitably affecting competition patterns within and between groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Environ Microbiol
December 2024
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, Hebrew University, Rehovot, Israel.
Antibiotic secretion plays a pivotal role in bacterial interference competition; yet, the impact of environmental hydration conditions on such competition is not well understood. Here, we investigate how hydration conditions affect interference competition among bacteria, studying the interactions between the antibiotic-producing FZB42 and two bacterial strains susceptible to its antibiotics: 85-10 and DC3000. Our results show that wet-dry cycles significantly modify the response of the susceptible bacteria to both the supernatant and cells of the antibiotic-producing bacteria, compared to constantly wet conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall
December 2024
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA.
Synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl and its analogs, have created an epidemic of abuse and significantly increased overdose deaths in the United States. Current detection methods have drawbacks in their sensitivity, scalability, and portability that limit field-based application to promote public health and safety. The need to detect trace amounts of fentanyl in complex mixtures with other drugs or interferents, and the continued emergence of new fentanyl analogs, further complicates detection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis
December 2024
School of Clinical Medicine, Dali University, Dali 671000, Yunnan, People's Republic of China; Center of Genetic Testing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dali University, Dali 671000, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:
Objective: The study established a direct link between stroke and sphingomyelin. The precise biology underlying this connection is yet unknown, though. As a result, we decided to investigate the potential causal relationship between Sphingomyelin and genetic vulnerability to stroke, as well as the potential mediating function that immune cells may play in this process, using Mendelian randomization (MR) approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Oral Health
December 2024
Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Background: -acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) are small signalling molecules predominantly secreted in Gram-negative bacteria.
Objective: The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of AHLs in oral health.
Methods: Two independent researchers conducted a systematic search of English language publications up to 30 June 2024 in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science.
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