Journal: Movement Ecology volume 11, Article number: 32 (2023)
Species(bat): The great evening bat (Ia io)
Abstract:
Background The niche breadth of an animal population comprises both within-individual and between-individual
variation (individual specialization). Both components can be used to explain changes in population niche breadth, and this has been extensively investigated in dietary niche dimension studies. However, little is known about how changes in food resources or environmental factors across seasons afect changes in individual and population space use within the same population.
Methods In this study, we used micro-GPS loggers to capture the space use of individuals and of a population of the great evening bat (Ia io) in summer and autumn. We used I. io as a model to investigate how individual spatial niche breadth and spatial individual specialization afect changes in population niche breadth (home range and core area sizes) across seasons. Additionally, we explored the drivers of individual spatial specialization.
Results We found that the population home range and the core area of I. io did not increase in autumn when insect resources were reduced. Moreover, I. io showed diferent specialization strategies in the two seasons: higher spatial individual specialization in summer and lower individual specialization but broader individual niche breadth in autumn. This trade-of may maintain the dynamic stability of the population spatial niche breadth across seasons and facilitate the population response to changes in food resources and environmental factors.
Conclusions Like diet, spatial niche breadth of a population also may be determined by a combination of individual niche breadth and individual specialization. Our work provides new insights into the evolution of niche breadth from the spatial dimension.
Keywords Bats, Individual specialization, Niche evolution, Resource changes, Spatial ecology
PUBLICATION AVAILABLE AT:
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00394-1
