What is the best method to determine the niche differentiation between sympatric birds species ?
Hello,
at first it is important to know that there are several types of niche differences - first - is the environment utilized by watched species homogenous (same in all abiotic and biotic factors) or heterogenous (different in factors)? If heterogenous - than measure the factors and describe differences (find out life history of each species - what they eat, growth rate, nest-patterns, and so on). If homogenous than do the species share completely same area? (this is space niches) If yes than you need to find out if they use the same area at the same time (time niches). As you see most of this can be done by simple observing with clearly specified period and other conditions :)
Best regard,
Dana
Dear Dana,
I have studied three sympatric finch species in three different habitats type, so I belive that these species share the same ecological niche. My question is what method can I use to treat my data? I am intrested in space niches, time niches and the nest niches? for example can I use MacArthur and Levins' Measure (see the attached file) to determine time niche using egg laying dates? I have collected simple data so far like egg laying dates, clutch size, the number of hatchlings and fledglings, and the nest placement characteristics of these species.
Regards,
I´ve checked the attached file and MacArthur/Levin´s measure seems to be quite fine for assessing overlap of nesting data, but perhaps you could consider Pianka version of the M-L measure which would make the comparison easier for interpretation (doesn´t matter from which side you assess the overlap). Time niche can be characterized by simple categories like "morning" or "summer" or "June" so I would suggest to count the time as number of days since observation start and compare nesting characteristics of the observed species in this sence. Let´s see what happen :)
Dear Dana,
I'll use the Pianka's mesure, and I'll inform you about the time niche.
Regards,
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