2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
6/06/2017 | 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM | HABITAT AND TROPHIC NICHE DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN A UNIONID COMMUNITY. | 305A
HABITAT AND TROPHIC NICHE DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN A UNIONID COMMUNITY.
Within dense communities of functionally similar organisms significant competition for shared resources is anticipated, driving these organisms to partition into distinct niches to reduce competition. However, within species-rich unionid mussel communities it appears that species often occupy highly overlapping niche volume. We studied the food and habitat portioning in diverse unionid communities to better understand community assembly. Unionid niches have proven difficult to identify due to an inability to accurately determine what food resources they are assimilating and habitats characteristics they prefer. To investigate habitat niches we conducted spatially-explicit (each quadrat had a GPS point associated with it) quantitative mussel surveys paired with a suite of environmental measures (e.g. flow velocity, sediment temperature, hyporheic connectivity, sediment particle size distribution). Resource assimilation was quantified by employing combined stable-isotope and fatty-acid analyses, to examine the nutritional resources being exploited; we also used scanning electron microscopy to examine unionid gill physiology across species. Considerable variability was observed interspecifically and intraspecifically in resources utilization and habitat occupation, though some species were found occupying narrower less variable niches suggesting specialization by those species.
- C11 Community Ecology
- C15 Population Ecology
- C05 Unionid Ecology
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Presenters/Authors
Brian van Ee
(), University of Alabama, bcvanee@gmail.com;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
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Nonfinancial -
Carla L. Atkinson
(), University of Alabama, carlalatkinson@gmail.com;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -