Ideal free distribution of metabolic activity: Implications of seasonal metabolic-activity patterns on competitive coexistence

The seasonal distribution of metabolic activity determines how much individuals experience different aspects of a periodically changing environment. Seasonal metabolic-activity patterns of coexisting species may differ significantly despite their shared environmental conditions, suggesting that interspecific diversification of this trait has a major role in the coexistence of competing species. In the present study the effect of the seasonal distribution of metabolic activity on intra- and interspecific competition is investigated in a consumer–resource model. It is shown that, in a periodically changing environment, for each environmental preference pattern there is an ideal seasonal distribution of metabolic activity, which results in maximum resource utilisation efficiency and competitive superiority. Contrary to the common interpretation of temporal niche segregation, opposing species-specific seasonal preferences are not a sufficient condition for the coexistence of two species on a population dynamical time scale. A necessary and sufficient condition for coexistence is the temporal segregation of the species via different seasonal activity distributions. However, coexistence is evolutionarily stable only if seasonal metabolic activities and preferences are positively correlated.