Journal
ECOLOGY
Volume 86, Issue 12, Pages 3289-3295Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1890/05-0583
Keywords
abiotic factors; Aedes aegypti; Aedes albopictus; environmental tolerances; invasive species
Categories
Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [R01 AI044793-06, R01 AI044793] Funding Source: Medline
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Condition-specific competition, wherein competitive superiority varies with the abiotic environment, can determine species' distributions in a spatially heterogeneous environment. We investigated this phenomenon with two competing container-dwelling mosquitoes. We tested the hypothesis that habitat drying alters the outcome of interspecific competition, predicting that the competitive impact of Aedes albopictus on Aedes aegypti would be severe in wetter environments, but greatly reduced in drier environments. We tested these predictions in a laboratory experiment within cages, with aquatic larvae residing in water-filled cups within the cage, and adults emerging within the cage and ovipositing on the cups. We raised each species alone or with the competitor. Environmental treatments were fluctuating (water in cups evaporated to 50% of the original volume and then cups were refilled), and drying (water in cups evaporated completely and cups remained dry for two weeks before refilling). There was a significant interaction between treatment and species combination for adult populations of both species. Interspecific competition was highly asymmetrical. In the wetter fluctuating environment, interspecific competition had a large negative effect on A. aegypti, but in the drying environment, interspecific competition had a large negative effect on A. albopictus, and relatively little impact on A. aegypti. The main cause of the shift in competitive advantage appeared to be a greater increase in egg mortality for A. albopictus under dry conditions, compared to A. aegypti. Thus, mortality impinging on noncompeting life-cycle stages call alter the population level impact of interspecific competition. The hypothesis that dry conditions shift competitive advantage away from A. albopictus is supported in this experiment.
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