title: Intraspecific density dependence and a guild of consumers coexisting on one resource.
abstract: The importance of negative intraspecific density dependence to promoting species coexistence in a community is well accepted. However, such mechanisms are typically omitted from more explicit models of community dynamics. Here I analyze a variation of the Rosenzweig-MacArthur consumer-resource model that includes negative intraspecific density dependence for consumers to explore its effect on the coexistence of multiple consumers feeding on a single resource. This analysis demonstrates that a guild of multiple consumers can easily coexist on a single resource if each limits its own abundance to some degree, and stronger intraspecific density dependence permits a wider variety of consumers to coexist. The mechanism permitting multiple consumers to coexist works in a fashion similar to apparent competition or to each consumer having its own specialized predator. These results argue for a more explicit emphasis on how negative intraspecific density dependence is generated and how these mechanisms combine with species interactions to shape overall community structure.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA. mark.mcpeek@dartmouth.edu
authors: Mark A
authors: MA
authors: McPeek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D008954:Models, Biological; D011156:Population Density; D013045:Species Specificity