Intraspecific dietary variation in niche partitioning within a community of ecologically similar snakes
Micah Perkins, Carl Cloyed & Perri Eason
Niche partitioning is an important mechanism for allowing ecologically similar species to coexist, contributing to biodiversity and the functioning of ecological communities. Species partition niches by taking advantage of environmental heterogeneity. However, niche partitioning and species coexistence investigations often do not include intraspecific variation or individual differences like sex and body size even though these factors can have important ecological consequences. Such intrapopulation factors can reduce the number of individuals among species that overlap in...