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Ants Play Rock, Paper Scissors: Implications for Pest Control in Coffee Farms
Ivette Perfecto from the University of Michigan
In Person Location: ISB 221
The question of how species coexist in ecological communities has fascinated ecologists since the time of Darwin. Historically, it has been assumed that ecological communities dominated by competitive interactions exhibit transitive competition. This means there is a hierarchy of competitive strength ranging from the most dominant to the most submissive species. However, if this assumption is taken to its extreme, it logically leads to the conclusion that the community would collapse, resulting in the dominance of a single species. Yet, this is not what we observe in nature. In this talk, I address this question by proposing that intransitive competition—similar to the dynamics of the rock-paper-scissors game—plays a crucial role in promoting coexistence among highly competitive ant communities. I will first present evidence for an intransitive loop involving three dominant species found in coffee farms in Puerto Rico. Afterward, I will analyze two models that could enhance species richness. Finally, we will discuss the implications of this intransitivity for pest control.