Species-specific behavioural responses to environmental variation as a potential species coexistence mechanism in ants

Abstract

A fundamental question of ecology is why species coexist in the same habitat. Coexistence can be enabled through niche differentiation, mediated by trait differentiation. Here, behaviour constitutes an often-overlooked set of traits. However, behaviours such as aggression and exploration drive intra- and interspecific competition, especially so in ants, where community structure is usually shaped by aggressive interactions. We studied behavioural variation in three ant species, which often co-occur in close proximity and occupy similar dominance ranks. We analysed how intra- and allospecific aggression, exploration and foraging activity vary under field conditions, namely with temperature and over time. Behaviours were assessed for 12 colonies per species, and four times each during several months. All behavioural traits consistently differed among colonies, but also varied over time and with temperature. These temperature-dependent and seasonal responses were highly species-specific. For example, foraging activity decreased at high temperatures in Formica rufibarbis , but not in Lasius niger ; over time, it declined strongly in L. niger but much less in F. rufibarbis . Our results suggest that, owing to these species-specific responses, no species is always competitively superior. Thus, environmental and temporal variation effects a dynamic dominance hierarchy among the species, facilitating coexistence via the storage effect.