Print PageTheory predicts that the presence of predators can alter the scaling of prey diversity by shifting the balance between both stochastic (e.g., colonization and extinction events) and deterministic (e.g., size of the realized species pool) processes of community assembly. These changes in the scaling of prey diversity are characterized by changes in prey community similarity from site-to-site (i.e., β-diversity) in the presence of predators. Predator induced increases in similarity signify enhanced deterministic, relative to stochastic, assembly processes, whereas decreases in similarity signify the opposite. While fully recognizing the heuristic value of such theories, here we identify predator-induced shifts in aspects of prey community assembly in Ozark glades that are not yet captured in current theories.
Results/Conclusions
By applying spatially and taxonomically hierarchical analyses of orthopteran prey metacommunity structure with and without lizard predators, we describe predator-induced shifts in 1) the spatial scale and extent of prey community assembly along environmental gradients, 2) the types of environmental gradients responsible for prey community assembly at different spatial scales, and 3) the prey taxonomic scale at which those different environmental gradients responsible for prey community assembly are manifested. These results suggest that the presence of predators can alter the scaling of prey diversity by not only shifting the balance between both stochastic and deterministic processes of community assembly, but also by shifting the spatial and taxonomic scales at which those processes of community assembly are realized.
