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Specialization and Noncompetitive Resource Partitioning Among Sponge-eating Dorid Nudibranchs by Stephen A. Bloom is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

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Habitat and food resource partitioning ecologically isolate six species of Pacific Northwest dorid nudibranchs. Food resources along a gradient of sponge skeletal structure are partitioned between two exploitive guilds. The guilds are characterized by mutually exclusive predatory and digestive adaptations which allow efficient processing of sponges with poorly- or well-organized skeletons. Habitats along a depth gradient are partitioned within guilds. For a dorid species, feeding rates, extraction efficiencies and food quality are virtually identical for sponges with the appropriate extreme (either poorly- or well-organized) and intermediate skeletal organizations, but growth and reproductive rates supported by the former prey type are twice those supported by the latter prey type. Prey types with the appropriate extreme skeletal organization are thus optimal food and specialization to that food is expected. When two divergent specialist species co-occur, food resource partitioning is demonstrable but arises from self-stabilizing specializations to maximize net energy accumulation and not from competitive interactions. Habitat partitioning is viewed as arising from prey distributio

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Author

Stephen A. Bloom

Publisher

Springer-Verlag; Springer Verlag; Springer Science and Business Media LLC (ISSN 0029-8549)

Published

1981

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)