title: Aggression and food resource competition between sympatric hermit crab species.
abstract: The vertical zonation patterns of intertidal organisms have been topics of interest to marine ecologists for many years, with interspecific food competition being implicated as a contributing factor to intertidal community organization. In this study, we used behavioral bioassays to examine the potential roles that interspecific aggression and food competition have on the structuring of intertidal hermit crab assemblages. We studied two ecologically similar, sympatric hermit crab species, Clibanarius digueti [1] and Paguristes perrieri [2], which occupy adjacent zones within the intertidal region of the Gulf of California. During the search phase of foraging, C. digueti showed higher frequencies of aggressive behaviors than P. perrieri. In competition assays, C. digueti gained increased access to food resources compared to P. perrieri. The results suggest that food competition may play an important role in structuring intertidal hermit crab assemblages, and that the zonation patterns of Gulf of California hermit crab species may be the result of geographical displacement by the dominant food competitor (C. digueti).
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America; Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mark V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Grady
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jeremiah
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colborn
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van Ness
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America; Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D033381:Anomura; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D061350:Sympatry