Trait-similarity and trait-hierarchy jointly determine co-occurrences of resident and invasive ant species

Abstract

Interspecific competition, a dominant process structuring ecological communities, acts on species phenotypic differences. Species with similar traits should compete intensely (trait-similarity), while those with traits that confer competitive ability should outcompete others (trait-hierarchy). Either or both of these mechanisms may drive competitive exclusion within a community, but their relative importance and interacting effects are rarely studied. We show empirically that spatial associations (pairwise co-occurrences) between an invasive ant Solenopsis invicta and 28 other ant species across a relatively homogenous landscape are explained largely by an interaction of trait-similarity and trait-hierarchy in one morphological trait. We find that increasing trait-hierarchy leads to more negative associations; however these effects are counteracted when species are sufficiently dissimilar (by 37-95%) in their trait ranges. We also show that a model of species co-occurrences integrating trait-similarity and trait-hierarchy consolidates predictions of different theoretical assembly rules. This highlights the explanatory potential of the trait-based co-occurrence approach.