Responses of a specialist and a generalist seed predator to variation in their common resource

• Fluctuations of resources in time and space will influence not only species abundance but also interactions among species. For plant–consumer interactions, the effects of resource variation have mostly been studied in systems with high resource variability. Systems with moderate variations are less studied, although ecological and evolutionary dynamics of plants and consumers are likely to be affected also by less extreme variability. The effects of variation in a particular resource should depend on consumer diet width.We examined how spatial and temporal variation in seed production in the perennial herb Lathyrus vernus influenced population dynamics and resource utilization in two beetle pre-dispersal seed predators with different host ranges over six years. The monophagous Apion opeticum occupied fewer patches and had lower densities than the oligophagous Bruchus atomarius. The proportion of seeds attacked increased with increases in seed production between years for both seed predators. A possible explanation for these patterns is that population dynamics of beetles are driven largely by local factors and that the same factors influence both beetle performance and seed production. In B. atomarius, patterns may also be influenced by a more pronounced preference for L. vernus in years with a high seed production in L. vernus. We conclude that relatively modest variation in seed production may result in responses that differ in both direction and extent from those usually observed in systems with high variation in seed production.

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NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences (hsv//eng)

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