Competition definitely plays a role in community structure, but how much and are these effects homogeneous? Gurevitch concludes that at all trophic levels are subject to competition however they are effected at different levels. Carnivorous and deposit feeders and primary producers all have a mean effect size of below 0.4 demonstrating that their is a low level response, whereas filter feeders and herbivores were show to have >1.0 mean effect size demonstrating a large response. However, it is interesting to note that although Filter Feeders and Herbivores were shown to respond to competition stronger most of the studies were done on these trophic categories. This may be bias, or it may be that studies looking at competition in Carnivores, deposit feeders and primary producers have not shown publishable results. So, the take home message is competition plays a role, but the extent of its role is dependent upon trohpic level.
Who is the better competitor?
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