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558 results for “Species interactions”

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dryad36/100

Species interactions and diversity: a unified framework using Hill numbers

Biodiversity describes the variety of organisms on planet earth. Ecologists have long hoped for a synthesis between analyses of biodiversity and analyses of biotic interactions among species, such as predation, competition, and mutualism. However, it is often unclear how to connect details of these interactions with complex modern analyses of biodiversity. To resolve this gap, we propose a unification of models of biotic interactions and measurements of diversity. We show that analyses of biodiversity obscure details about biotic interactions. For example, identical changes in biodiversity can arise from predation, competition or mutualism. Our approach indicates that traditional models of community assembly miss key facets of diversity change. Instead, we suggest that analyses of diversity change should focus on partitions, which measure mechanisms that directly shape changes in diversity, notably species level selection and immigration, rather than traditional analyses of biotic interactions.

opencc-zeroJan 2023View details →

dryad36/100

High species turnover and unique plant–pollinator interactions make a hyperdiverse mountain

1. We studied α- and β-diversity of pollinators, flowering plants, and plant–pollinator interactions along the altitudinal gradient of Mt. Olympus, a legendary mountain and biodiversity hotspot in Central Greece. 2. We explored ten study sites located on the north-eastern slope of the mountain, from 327 to 2,596 m a.s.l. Insect surveys were conducted once a month using hand netting (years 2013, 2014, and 2016), and they were combined with recordings of flowering plant diversity (species richness and flower cover). We then calculated α- and β-diversity of pollinators, plants in flower, and plant–pollinator interactions, and explored their demographic response along the altitudinal gradient. 3. Alpha‐diversity of pollinators, plants, and plant–pollinator interactions were altitude-dependent; α‐diversity of all pollinators, bees, non-bumblebee bees, bee flies, and butterflies showed linear declines with altitude, whereas those of hoverflies and bumblebees showed unimodal patterns. Beta-diversity and its turnover component of all pollinators, hoverflies, bees, bumblebees, non-bumblebee bees, butterflies, and plants showed linear increases, whereas those of bee flies and of plant–pollinator interactions varied independently from the pairwise altitudinal difference. 4. The high dissimilarity and uniqueness of pollination networks, which is probably a result of the high biodiversity and endemism of Mt. Olympus, is driven by species turnover and the formation of new interactions between new species. Contrasting to the monotonic decline of the remaining groups, the unimodal patterns of hoverfly and bumblebee α‐diversity are probably the effect of a higher tolerance of these groups to high-altitude environmental conditions. Our findings highlight that the high turnover of species and of pollination interactions along the altitudinal gradient is the mainstay of hyperdiverse mountains, a fact that conveys important historical, ecological, and conservational implications.

opencc-zeroFeb 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Scale-dependent effects of landscape structure on pollinator traits, species interactions and pollination success

Data: Plant-pollinator interactions, pollinator body size (inter-tegular distance, ITD) and plant reproductive success (number of seeds produced). Data collected by Christie J. Webber. Data collected in 14 experimental flowering plant patches during December 2012–February 2013. Patches were located in a 105 hectare sheep farm pasture in Oxford, North Canterbury, New Zealand (43°19'21"S 172°12'25"E). Files: <ul> <li>Data_S1: contains plant-pollinator interactions sampled and pollinator inter-tegular distance (ITD). Data_S1 columns: patch ID where the interaction was recorded, plant species, pollinator ITD (mm), and pollinator family, genus and species.</li> <li>Data_S2: contains the number of seeds produced by each of the five flowers of each plant individual from each plant species on each patch. Data_S2 columns: patch ID where the measurement was taken, plant species, plant number (individual sampled), number of seeds.</li> </ul> Dataset used in "Scale-dependent effects of landscape structure on pollinator traits, species interactions and pollination success" by G. Peralta, C.J. Webber, G.L.W. Perry, D.B. Stouffer, D.P. Vázquez and J.M. Tylianakis.

opencc-zeroFeb 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Gut microbiota inter-species interactions shape the response of Clostridioides difficile to clinically relevant antibiotics

In the human gut, the growth of Clostridioides difficile is impacted by a complex web of inter-species interactions with members of human gut microbiota. We investigate the contribution of inter-species interactions on the antibiotic response of C. difficile to clinically relevant antibiotics using bottom-up assembly of human gut communities. We discover two classes of microbial interactions that alter C. difficile’s antibiotic susceptibility: infrequent increases in tolerance at high antibiotic concentrations and frequent growth enhancements at low antibiotic concentrations. Based on genome-wide transcriptional profiling data, we demonstrate that metal sequestration due to hydrogen sulfide production by the prevalent gut species Desulfovibrio piger increases metronidazole tolerance of C. difficile. Competition with species that display higher sensitivity to the antibiotic than C. difficile leads to enhanced growth of C. difficile at low antibiotic concentrations. A dynamic computational model identifies the ecological design principles driving this effect. Our results provide a deeper understanding of ecological and molecular principles shaping C. difficile’s response to antibiotics, which could inform therapeutic interventions.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Seed limitation interacts with biotic and abiotic factors to constrain novel species' impact on community biomass and richness

Seed limitation can narrow down the number of coexisting plant species, limit plant community productivity, and can also constrain community responses to changing environmental and biotic conditions. In a 10-year full-factorial experiment of seed addition, fertilisation, warming, and herbivore exclusion, we tested how seed addition alters community richness and biomass, and how its effects depend on seed origin and biotic and abiotic context. We found that seed addition increased species richness in all treatments, and increased plant community biomass depending on nutrient addition and warming. Novel species, originally absent from the communities, increased biomass the most, especially in fertilised plots and in the absence of herbivores, while adding seeds of local species did not affect biomass. Our results show that seed limitation constrains both community richness and biomass, and highlight the importance of considering trophic interactions and soil nutrients when assessing novel species immigrations and their effects on community biomass.

opencc-zeroMar 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Components of local adaptation and divergence in pollination efficacy in a coevolving species interaction

Selection leading to adaptation to interactions may generate rapid evolutionary feedbacks and drive diversification of species interactions. The challenge is to understand how the many traits of interacting species combine to shape local adaptation in ways directly or indirectly resulting in diversification. We used the well-studied interactions between Lithophragma plants (Saxifragaceae) and Greya moths (Prodoxidae) to evaluate how plants and moths together contribute to local divergence in pollination efficacy. Specifically, we studied L. bolanderi and its two specialized Greya moth pollinators in two contrasting environments in the Sierra Nevada, California. Both moths pollinate L. bolanderi during nectaring, and one of them – G. politella – also while ovipositing through the floral corolla into the ovary. Firstly, field surveys of floral visitors and the presence of G. politella eggs and larvae in developing capsules showed that one population is visited only by G. politella and few other pollinators, whereas the other is visited by both Greya species and other pollinators. Secondly, L. bolanderi in these two natural populations differed in several floral traits putatively important for pollination efficacy. Thirdly, laboratory experiments with greenhouse-grown plants and field-collected moths showed that L. bolanderi is more efficiently pollinated by local compared to non-local nectaring moths of both species. Pollination efficacy of ovipositing G. politella was also higher for local moths for the L. bolanderi population that relies more heavily on this species in nature. Finally, time-lapse photography in the laboratory showed that G. politella from different populations differ in oviposition behavior, suggesting the potential for local adaptation also among Greya populations. Collectively, our results are a rare example of components of local adaptation contributing to divergence in pollination efficiency in a coevolving interaction and, thus, provide insights into how geographic mosaics of coevolution may lead to coevolutionary diversification in species interactions.

opencc-zeroMar 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Plant species with larger extrafloral nectaries produce better quality nectar only when needed and favour interactions with best ant partners

Few studies investigated the phenotypic plasticity of extrafloral nectary (EFN) functioning associated with indirect plant defense across species. Here, we experimentally investigate in three sympatric legume species the role of EFNs, hypothesizing that plant species with larger EFNs have higher induced nectar secretion after herbivory events, greater control over secretion, and are more likely to interact with more protective ant partners. We targeted 30 individuals of each legume species and estimated EFN size and activity in the field. We conducted field experiments to evaluate the phenotypic plasticity of nectar production after leaf damage and censused ant species feeding on EFNs. Plant species increased nectar after leaf damage but in different ways. Supporting our hypothesis, C. duckeana, with the largest EFNs, increased all nectar descriptors, taking its place as the most productive and intense post-herbivory induced response, attracting more dominant ants than the other plant species. The higher control over reward production in plant species with larger-sized EFN reflects an induction mechanism under damage that reduces costs and increases the potential benefits of indirect biotic defences. Together, these plant traits shape the patterns of ant attendance and defence against herbivores, possibly favouring the maintenance of plant protection mutualisms widespread in nature.

opencc-zeroApr 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Additive genetic effects in interacting species jointly determine the outcome of caterpillar herbivory

Plant-insect interactions are common and important in basic and applied biology. Trait and genetic variation can affect the outcome and evolution of these interactions, but the relative contributions of plant and insect genetic variation and how these interact remain unclear and are rarely subject to assessment in the same experimental context. Here we address this knowledge gap using a recent host range expansion onto alfalfa by the Melissa blue butterfly. Common garden rearing experiments and genomic data show that caterpillar performance depends on plant and insect genetic variation, with insect genetics contributing to performance earlier in development and plant genetics later. Our models of performance based on caterpillar genetics retained predictive power when applied to a second common garden. Much of the plant genetic effect could be explained by heritable variation in plant phytochemicals, especially saponins, peptides, and phosphatidyl cholines, providing a possible mechanistic understanding of variation in the species interaction. We find evidence of polygenic, mostly additive effects within and between species, with consistent effects of plant genotype on growth and development across multiple butterfly species. Our results inform theories of plant-insect coevolution and the evolution of diet breadth in herbivorous insects and other host-specific parasites.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data for: Honey bees (Apis mellifera) modify plant-pollinator network structure, but do not alter wild species' interactions

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are widely used for honey production and crop pollination, raising concern for wild pollinators, as honey bees may compete with wild pollinators for floral resources. The first sign of competition, before changes appear in wild pollinator abundance or diversity, may be changes to wild pollinator interactions with plants. Such changes for a community can be measured by looking at changes to metrics of resource use overlap in plant-pollinator interaction networks. Studies of honey bee effects on plant-pollinator networks have usually not distinguished whether honey bees alter wild pollinator interactions, or if they merely alter total network structure by adding their own interactions. To test this question, we experimentally introduced honey bees to a Canadian grassland and measured plant-pollinator interactions at varying distances from the introduced hives. We found that honey bees increased the network metrics of pollinator and plant functional complementarity and decreased interaction evenness. However, in networks constructed from just wild pollinator interactions, honey bee abundance did not affect any of the metrics calculated. Thus, all network structural changes to the full network (including honey bee interactions) were due only to honey bee-plant interactions, and not to honey bees causing changes in wild pollinator-plant interactions. Given widespread and increasing use of honey bees, it is important to establish whether they affect wild pollinator communities. Our results suggest that honey bees did not alter wild pollinator foraging patterns in this system, even in a year that was drier than the 20-year average.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Aridity and soil fertility, not species richness, interact to affect temporal stability along a large natural gradient in Northern China

There is mounting evidence from experimental studies that drought and nutrient enrichment can interact to impact the biodiversity and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems. Whether such interactive effect influence plant diversity and the temporal stability of community productivity of natural ecosystems is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we combined a field survey of plant diversity and soil conditions with remote sensing temporal estimates of primary productivity in grasslands along a natural gradient in northern China. We found that aridity and soil ammonium (NH4+-N) interacted to influence temporal stability of NDVI. That is, the relationship between ammonium and temporal stability of NDVI shifted from positive to negative due to increased standard deviation of NDVI with increasing aridity. Species richness was not related to temporal stability because it influenced the mean and standard deviation of NDVI proportionally. As a result, soil fertility outweighed the contribution of species richness to temporal stability. Our study demonstrates the synergistic effect of aridity and soil fertility, but not species richness, on temporal stability along a large natural gradient. Predicting how environmental drivers affect diversity and the stable provisioning of ecosystem services in real-world ecosystems therefore requires a better understanding of the complex interactions among environmental drivers.

opencc-zeroJul 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Effects of dominant ant species on ant community structure and ant-hemipteran interactions

Ants often interact aggressively for resources (e.g., nest sites and food) with members of their own or another species. In these competitive interactions, dominant ant species exert a strong influence on ant species coexistence and plant-associated arthropod community structure. However, few studies have experimentally manipulated the relative abundance of dominant ant species on plants, preventing a mechanistic understanding of the effects of ant competitive interactions on ant community structure as well as on their interactions with other insects, particularly mutualistic hemipterans. In this study, we performed a field experiment in a tropical dry forest in Brazil to investigate the effects of two dominant ant species (Camponotus crassus and Cephalotes pusillus) on the structure of ant communities and the abundance of the ant-tended hemipteran Enchenopa brasiliensis in the tropical shrub Solanum lycocarpum. For this, we identified and quantified all ant species foraging on S. lycocarpum plants and estimated the number of egg masses, nymphs and adults of the mutualistic hemipteran before and after experimentally removing nests of both dominant ant species. Our results showed that removal of C. pusillus nests significantly changed the community structure of ants foraging on S. lycocarpum plants, whereas removal of C. crassus nests did not. We also found that nest removal of both dominant ant species had significant effects on hemipteran abundance. In particular, plants generally hosted more hemipteran eggs, nymphs and adults after (vs. before) nest removal of both dominant ant species. Overall, this study demonstrates that dominant ant species can play a pivotal role in structuring ant communities and the interactions between ants and honeydew-producing hemipteran insects.

opencc-zeroAug 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Dynamic social interactions and keystone species shape the diversity and stability of mixed-species biofilms – an example from dairy isolates - Dataset

We previously reported a bacterial four-species biofilm model comprising Stenotrophomonas rhizophila (SR), Bacillus licheniformis (BL), Microbacterium lacticum (ML), and Calidifontibacter indicus (CI) that were isolated from the surface of a dairy pasteuriser after cleaning and disinfection. These bacteria produced 3.13-fold more biofilm mass compared to the sum of biofilm masses in monoculture (<a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1159434">https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1159434</a>). In a subsequent experiment we confirmed that the observed community synergy resulted from dynamic social interactions among various species pairs, encompassing commensalism, exploitation, and amensalism. M. lacticum appeared to be the keystone species as it increased the growth of all other species that led to the synergy in biofilm mass. Interactions among the other three species (in the absence of M. lacticum) also contributed towards the synergy in biofilm mass. Bacterial cell-free-supernatants were also investigated to assess the nature of the observed synergy. The first four sheets of the Excel file contain raw cell count data for the four species (SR, BL, ML, and CI), recorded every 4 h over a 24 h period on the surface of stainless steel (SS) in the presence of brain-heart-infusion (BHI) medium and skim-milk (SM). Data related to individual bacterial cell counts in various mixed-species biofilms are also presented. These biofilms were developed on SS in BHI for h.  Data related to bacterial biofilm masses in different mixed-species biofilm combinations are also presented, showcasing the effect of replacing one strain with its CFS. Species written in red indicate that their CFS was used, not their viable form.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2023View details →

dryad36/100