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Park's Tribolium competition experiments: a non-equilibrium species coexistence hypothesis

  1. Jeffrey Edmunds1,*,
  2. J. M. Cushing2,
  3. R. F. Costantino3,
  4. Shandelle M. Henson4,
  5. Brian Dennis5,
  6. R. A. Desharnais6

Article first published online: 15 AUG 2003

DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00743.x

Issue

Journal of Animal Ecology

Journal of Animal Ecology

Volume 72, Issue 5, pages 703–712, September 2003

Additional Information

How to Cite

Edmunds, J., Cushing, J. M., Costantino, R. F., Henson, S. M., Dennis, B. and Desharnais, R. A. (2003), Park's Tribolium competition experiments: a non-equilibrium species coexistence hypothesis. Journal of Animal Ecology, 72: 703–712. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00743.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Mathematics, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA, 22401;

  2. 2

    Department of Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721;

  3. 3

    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721,

  4. 4

    Department of Mathematics, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI 49104;

  5. 5

    epartment of Fish and Wildlife Resources and Division of Statistics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844; and

  6. 6

    Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA

* Jeffrey Edmunds, Department of Mathematics, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA 22401, USA. E-mail: jedmunds@mwc.edu

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 15 AUG 2003
  2. Article first published online: 15 AUG 2003
  3. Received 22 November 2002;accepted 11 April 2003

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Keywords:

  • competitive coexistence;
  • competitive exclusion;
  • flour beetle;
  • Thomas Park

Summary

  • 1
    In this journal 35 years ago, P. H. Leslie, T. Park and D. B. Mertz reported competitive exclusion data for two Tribolium species. It is less well-known that they also reported ‘difficult to interpret’ coexistence data. We suggest that the species exclusion and the species coexistence are consequences of a stable coexistence two-cycle in the presence of two stable competitive exclusion equilibria.
  • 2
    A stage-structured insect population model for two interacting species forecasts that as interspecific interaction is increased there occurs a sequence of dynamic changes (bifurcations) in which the classic Lotka–Volterra-type scenario with two stable competitive exclusion equilibria is altered abruptly to a novel scenario with three locally stable entities; namely, two competitive exclusion equilibria and a stable coexistence cycle. This scenario is novel in that it predicts the competitive coexistence of two nearly identical species on a single limiting resource and does so under circumstances of increased interspecific competition. This prediction is in contradiction to classical tenets of competition theory.
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