| | |
Summary: Comparative support for the niche variation
hypothesis that more generalized populations
also are more heterogeneous
Daniel I. Bolnick*
, Richard Svanba¨ck
, Ma´rcio S. Arau´ jo§
, and Lennart Persson¶
*Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712; Department of Ecology and Evolution/Limnology, Evolutionary Biology Centre,
Uppsala University, Norbyva¨gen 20, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden; §Programa de Po´ s-Graduac¸a~o em Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade
Estadual de Campinas, Caixa Postal 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil; and ¶Department of Ecology and Environmental Science,
Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
Communicated by Thomas W. Schoener, University of California, Davis, CA, April 26, 2007 (received for review January 2, 2007)
There is extensive evidence that some species of ecological gen-
eralists, which use a wide diversity of resources, are in fact
heterogeneous collections of relatively specialized individuals. This
within-population variation, or ``individual specialization,'' is a key
requirement for frequency-dependent interactions that may drive
a variety of types of evolutionary diversification and may influence
the population dynamics and ecological interactions of species.
Consequently, it is important to understand when individual spe-
|
