Print PageThe study of mutualism has progressed rapidly in the last two decades, but unlike the earlier advancement of competition and predation, theory and conceptual development has lagged behind empirical studies. Recent investigations of multispecies interactions between two mutualist classes (e.g. plants and their pollinators) have provided one type of useful framework. Mutualisms arising between pairs or small groups of species must be conceptualized differently, such as the recently developed consumer-resource perspective. Here we emphasize a guild based-framework, and we use conceptual diagrams, simple mathematical models, and an empirical study to flesh it out.
Results/Conclusions
We find that there are many different ways that mutualisms arise within guilds, including those featuring intraguild predation (IGP), and we show how they work. We demonstrate empirically one case of IGP-related mutualism, based on an interaction among black bear, palms, and the giant palm weevil in Florida. Using differential equation models, we argue that facultative mutualism fits nicely within the class of simple interaction models that includes Volterra competition, but the analysis shows that obligatory mutualism is inherently more complicated. We offer some new results that should connect well with empirical studies and point the way toward further theoretical and empirical development.
