Abstract Climate change is predicted to decrease the availability of water in deserts, potentially increasing competition for water. We wanted to determine if competition between top carnivores in deserts of western North America (i.e., coyote (Canis latrans) and bobcat (Lynx rufus)) was influenced by water availability. Evidence suggests that coyotes and bobcats do not compete for water in the Chihuahuan Desert, but this desert receives 2–3X more precipitation when water is limiting than other western deserts. If water availability influences competition, we predicted that bobcats (subordinate to coyotes) would avoid water sources used by coyotes in deserts where water availability is low when demand is high. We monitored 105 water sources for three years in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts and captured 810 bobcat visits and 2247 coyote visits. We found no evidence that bobcats avoided water sources used by coyotes. In contrast, bobcat visitation to water increased as coyote visitation increased. It does not appear that bobcats and coyotes compete for water, spatially or temporally (on an hourly scale), in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. Our study suggests that anthropogenic water sources may alleviate the effects of environmental water loss on the interactions between top mammalian carnivores.

中文翻译：

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北美西部两个沙漠水源顶级食肉动物的时空相互作用

摘要 预计气候变化会减少沙漠中的可用水量，可能会加剧对水的竞争。我们想确定北美西部沙漠中的顶级食肉动物（即土狼 (Canis latrans) 和山猫 (Lynx rufus)）之间的竞争是否受到水资源可用性的影响。有证据表明，土狼和山猫不会在奇瓦瓦沙漠争水，但当水资源有限时，该沙漠的降水量是其他西部沙漠的 2-3 倍。如果水的可用性影响竞争，我们预测山猫（从属于土狼）将避免沙漠中土狼使用的水源，而沙漠中的水供应量却很低，而需求量很大。我们对大盆地和莫哈韦沙漠的 105 个水源进行了为期三年的监测，捕获了 810 次山猫访问和 2247 次土狼访问。我们没有发现山猫避开土狼使用的水源的证据。相比之下，山猫对水的访问随着土狼访问的增加而增加。在大盆地和莫哈韦沙漠中，山猫和郊狼似乎并没有在空间或时间上（以小时为单位）争水。我们的研究表明，人为水源可能会减轻环境水分流失对顶级哺乳动物食肉动物之间相互作用的影响。