Body Size‐Related Coexistence: An Approach Through Allometric Constraints on Home‐Range Use

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Abstract
This paper investigates whether body size—related constraints on home—range resource harvesting could lead to coexistence between interspecific competitors of different body size under conditions of complete niche overlap. With this objective, I analyzed the influence of body size on induced and sustainable resource limitation and its implications on the interaction between an individual and a fixed biomass of larger competitors in a four—dimensional space, consisting of two spatial dimensions describing competitor home range, resource availability, and time. It was shown that body size—related spatiotemporal constraints on home—range resource harvesting, trophic optimization, and relativity of resource availability determine absolute and relative amounts of unused home—range resources, restricting the influence of resource limitation induced by an individual to a definite size distance around its size. It was therefore concluded that: (1) when competition occurs asymmetrically with a superiority of large animals, size differences alone could allow coexistence, independently of any kind of resource partitioning; and (2) superiority of large animals should result from the resource density control that a larger competitor imposes on the smaller one whenever size differences for stable coexistence occur. Existing evidence of an inefficiency in home—range resource exploitation seems large enough to suggest a view of guilds based on a hierarchy of inclusive home ranges.

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