Competition and Resource Partitioning in Temperate Ungulate Assemblies

Rory Putman addresses the question of how, in many temporate ecosystems, diverse and species-rich assemblies of ungulates manage to co-exist despite often quite extensive overlap in ecological requirements. Putman explores the potential for competition, competition tolerance and even positive facilitation amongst the members of such guilds of ungulates. As a central worked example, the author employs data resulting from over 20 years of personal research into the ecology and population dynamics of various large herbivores of the New Forest in Southern England. With these, he applies formal protocols in resource use, evidence for resource limitation and evidence for interaction between species in changing population size over the years.

In this book Dr Rory Putman addresses the question of how, in many temperate ecosystems, diverse and species-rich assemblies of ungulate manage to co-exist despite often quite extensive overlap in ecological requirements. Putman explores the potential for competition, competitive tolerance and even positive facilitation amongst the members of such guilds of ungulates. As a central worked example, the author employs data resulting from over 20 years' personal research into the ecology and population dynamics of various large herbivores of the New Forest in Southern England. Using these data the author applies formal protocols to seek evidence of competition and facilitation - examining the extent of overlap in resource use, evidence for resource limitation and evidence for interaction between species in changing population sizes. In a careful review of published studies of interactions amongst other multispecies ungulate assemblies in Europe and North America, conclusions about the forces structuring resource relationships are then extended to consider how widely these conclusions may hold.