Syntop

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In ecology and biogeography , syntope means that species or populations occur together in the same biotope or habitat . If they do not occur together, possibly only in a part of their distribution, this is called an allotope. The associated nouns are syntopy and allotopia.

Syntopy differs from the related term sympatry in that sympatric species overlap in their distribution, but do not necessarily have to occur in the same biotope. For example, two sympatric species can occur throughout Europe, but one of them lives exclusively in the mountains, one in the plains. If their occurrence at medium altitudes (in the hill country) actually overlapped, they would be syntopic there.

The study of syntopy is important in examining the reasons for the arealization and distribution of related species. If two species appear sympatric but not syntopically, this is an indication of the exclusion of competition , whereby one species would completely displace the other from their preferred habitat. In doing so, however, it must be ensured that the missing common occurrence is not possibly due to other causes, for example due to the historical immigration and spread of the species or that it simply occurred by chance ( null hypothesis ). In the case of syntopic occurrences, possible mechanisms of competition avoidance are often examined. For example, where two species occur together, they may be more dissimilar in one essential characteristic than when they occur separately. This is then called character displacement.

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  • Luis Rene Rivas (1964): A Reinterpretation of the Concepts “Sympatric” and “Allopatric” with Proposal of the Additional Terms “Syntopic” and “Allotopic”. Systematic Biology 13: 42-43.
  • P. Segurado, WE Kunin, AF Filipe, MB Araújo (2012): Patterns of coexistence of two species of freshwater turtles are affected by spatial scale. Basic and Applied Ecology 13: 371-379. doi : 10.1016 / j.baae.2012.03.008
  • Neal Woodman (2000): Cryptotis merriami Choate in Costa Rica: Syntopy with Cryptotis nigrescens (Allen) and Possible Character Displacement (Mammalia: Insectivora). Caribbean Journal of Science 36 (3-4): 289-299.