Trophic niche divergence at the local scale
To identify trophic niche competition, niche overlaps were analyzed
between all species pairs of the 7 species in the 5 sampling sites
respectively. The 7 species may not be present at all the 5
sites. It was found that, some
species pairs showed some extent overlaps in their trophic niches, some
not. Interestingly, all sister species pairs except one showed no
overlap, and the overlaps between sister species were significantly less
than those between closely related species (excluding sister species)
(P =0.008 < 0.05), indicating the possible competitive
exclusion there (Table. 1, Supplement Fig. A1).