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43 results for “ant-plant”
Data from: Which traits optimize plant benefits? Meta-analysis on the effect of partner traits on the outcome of an ant-plant protective mutualism
<p><span>1. Theoretical models on mutualism dynamics predict that partner traits may influence the outcome of mutualistic interactions. However, most empirical data on this issue is restricted to case studies, limiting our ability to reach a more widespread comprehension of the role of partner traits on the dynamic of mutualisms. </span></p> <p><span>2. We investigated how the outcome of protective mutualisms between ants and plants bearing extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) is influenced by the traits of EFNs and ants feeding on EFNs. We used a meta-analytical approach based on 35 studies investigating the effect of ant attendance on the herbivores and reproductive performance of EFN-bearing plants. We evaluated how variation in the EFN vascularization and location on plants and the ant aggressiveness can modulate the effect of ant attendance on the plants. </span></p> <p><span>3. Both plant and ant traits investigated here drove the outcome of the protective mutualism for EFN-bearing plants. Plants exclusively bearing EFNs near reproductive organs benefited more from ant attendance than plants bearing EFNs on vegetative or vegetative and reproductive organs. Ants had a higher positive impact on the reproductive performance of plants bearing non-vascularized EFNs than plants bearing vascularized EFNs, although their effects on herbivores had been similar in both plant types. Regarding the ant behavior, plants often attended by more aggressive ant species had a higher reproductive performance than plants often attended by less aggressive ones. </span></p> <p><span>4. Synthesis</span><span>: Our results highlight that the selective pressures and evolutionary routes in ant-plant protective mutualisms may depend on the pool of traits exhibited by partner species. Although some studies have already reported some impact of species traits on the outcome of ant-plant mutualisms, this is the first time that a generalization about the role of species traits on the net balance of ant attendance was proposed. Due to this generalization, it was possible to advance our knowledge about the evolution of facultative mutualisms by showing that the role of species traits on the mutualistic outcome can vary in intricate ways due to a particular trait combination found among partners in communities where the interactions are embedded in.</span></p>
Disruption of an ant-plant mutualism shapes interactions between lions and their primary prey
<p><strong>Data and file overview:</strong></p> <ol> <li>Kamaru_Path_Analysis_Data.csv</li> <li>Kamaru_Path_Analysis.R</li> <li>Kamaru_Zebra_RSF_Data.csv</li> <li>Kamaru_Zebra_RSF.R</li> </ol> <p><strong>Layers used to build Zebra RSF:</strong></p> <ol> <li>Kamaru_DWater: distance to water</li> <li>Kamaru_DGlade: distance to glade</li> <li>Kamaru_DSettlement: distance to human settlement</li> <li>Kamaru_OPC_Veg: vegetation layer (classes: <em>V. drepanolobium</em>, <em>E. divinorum, </em>others)</li> </ol> <p><strong>SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Kamaru_Path_Analysis_Data.csv</strong></p> <ol> <li>Number of variables: 11</li> <li>Description: This data file includes 105 zebra kill sites and paired random locations from June 2019 to August 2020. It also includes: (A) monthly utilization distributions of lion prides associated with each kill site and paired point; and (B) zebra densities estimated from resource selection functions, associated with each kill site, and paired random location. Please see our supplementary materials for more details on data and methods.</li> <li>Variable list:</li> </ol> <p>(A) rsf.block: Resource Selection Function blocks (block 1: Jan-Apr 2019, block 2: May-Sep 2019, block 3: Oct 2019 – Jan 2020, block 4: Feb-May 2020, block 5: Jun-Sep 2020)</p> <p>(B) Kill_ID: kill identifier.</p> <p>(C) Lion_ID: individual lion pride identifier.</p> <p>(D) Date (Day, Month, Year) when a specific kill occurred.</p> <p>(E) Zebra_kill (1 = kill site, 0 = paired random location).</p> <p>(F). Species: Zebra.</p> <p>(G) Visibility: openness measurement using a rangefinder in (m).</p> <p>(H) Lion_activity: Utilization distributions (UD) of lions.</p> <p>(I) Invasion (1 = invaded by big-headed ants, 0 = uninvaded by big-headed ants).</p> <p>(J) zeb.rsf: resource selection function value.</p> <p>(K) zeb.density: zebra density estimated from resource selection functions.</p> <p><strong>SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Kamaru_Zebra_RSF_Data.csv</strong></p> <ol> <li>Number of variables: 10</li> <li>Description: This data file includes 182 zebra sightings, paired with 10 random points created for each sighting/used point. Also, the data includes actual GPS locations of each sighting and the total number of zebras in each sighting. Please see our supplementary materials for more details on data and methods.</li> <li>Variable list:</li> </ol> <p>(A) Species: Zebra.</p> <p>(B) Date (Day, Month, Year) for that sighting.</p> <p>(C) Survey: count identifier (Survey 2 to 21).</p> <p>(D) GPS location (X and Y), longitude and latitude of that sighting location.</p> <p>(E) Transect: Transect number.</p> <p>(F) Used: (1= zebra sighting, 0 = paired point).</p> <p>(G) zebra.ct: total number of zebras in each sighting.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>R CODE</strong></p> <p><strong>SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Kamaru_Path_Analysis.R</strong></p> <ol> <li>Description: Apply this code to Kamaru_Path_Analysis_Data.csv to build nested path models.</li> </ol> <p><strong>SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Kamaru_Zebra_RSF.R</strong></p> <ol> <li>Description: Apply this code to Kamaru_Zebra_RSF_Data.csv to build resource selection functions for zebra. Use the following layers: Kamaru_DWater, Kamaru_DGlade, Kamaru_DSettlement and Kamaru_OPC_Veg to build the Zebra RSF.</li> </ol>
Data from: Which traits optimize plant benefits? Meta-analysis on the effect of partner traits on the outcome of an ant-plant protective mutualism
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Challenges in the early ontogeny of a mutualistic plant: Resource availability and plant defense in juvenile Cecropia ant-plants
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Data from: Economy of scale: third partner strengthens a keystone ant-plant mutualism
While foundation species can stabilize ecosystems at landscape scales, their ability to persist is often underlain by keystone interactions occurring at smaller scales. Acacia drepanolobium is a foundation tree, comprising >95% of woody cover in East African black-cotton savanna ecosystems. Its dominance is underlain by a keystone mutualistic interaction with several symbiotic ant species in which it provides housing (swollen thorns) and carbohydrate-rich nectar from extra-floral nectaries (EFN). In return, it gains protection from catastrophic damage from mega-herbivores. Crematogaster mimosae is the ecologically dominant symbiotic ant in this system, also providing the highest protection services. In addition to tending EFN, C. mimosae tend scale insects for carbohydrate-rich honeydew. We investigated the role of scale insects in this specialized ant-plant interaction. Specifically, does this putatively redundant third partner strengthen the ant-plant mutualism by making the ant a better protector of the tree? Or does it weaken the mutualism by being costly to the tree while providing no additional benefit to the ant-plant mutualism? We coupled observational surveys with two scale-manipulation experiments and found evidence that this third partner strengthens the ant-plant mutualism. Trees with scale insects experimentally removed experienced a 2.5X increase in elephant damage compared to trees with scale insects present over 10 months. Reduced protection was driven by scale removal causing a decrease in ant colony size and per capita baseline activity and defensive behavior. We also found that ants increased scale-tending and the density of scale insects on trees when EFN were experimentally reduced. Thus, in this system, scale insects and EFN are likely complementary, rather than redundant, resources with scale insects benefitting ants when EFN production is low (such as during annual dry periods in this semi-arid ecosystem). This study reveals that a third-partner strengthens an ant-plant mutualism that serves to stabilize a whole ecosystem.
Data from: Population genomics and demographic sampling of the ant-plant Vachellia drepanolobium and its symbiotic ants from sites across its range in East Africa.
The association between the African ant plant, Vachellia drepanolobium, and the ants that inhabit it has provided insight into the boundaries between mutualism and parasitism, the response of symbioses to environmental perturbations, and the ecology of species coexistence. We use a landscape genomics approach at sites sampled throughout the range of this system in Kenya to investigate the demographics and genetic structure of the different partners in the association. We find that different species of ant associates of V. drepanolobium show striking differences in their spatial distribution throughout Kenya, and these differences are only partly correlated with abiotic factors. A comparison of the population structure of the host plant and its three obligately arboreal ant symbionts, Crematogaster mimosae, Crematogaster nigriceps, and Tetraponera penzigi, shows that the ants exhibit somewhat similar patterns of structure throughout each of their respective ranges, but that this does not correlate in any clear way with the respective genetic structure of the populations of their host plants. A lack of evidence for local coadaptation in this system suggests that all partners have evolved to cope with a wide variety of biotic and abiotic conditions.
Data from: Evolutionary déjà vu? A case of convergent evolution in an ant-plant association
<p>Obligatory ant-plant symbioses often appear to be single evolutionary shifts within particular ant lineages; however, convergence can be revealed once natural history observations are complemented with molecular phylogenetics. Here we describe a remarkable example of convergent evolution in an ant-plant symbiotic system. Exclusively arboreal, <em>Myrmelachista</em> species can be generalized opportunists nesting in several plant species or obligately symbiotic, live-stem nesters of a narrow set of plant species. Instances of specialization within <em>Myrmelachista</em> are known from northern South America and throughout Middle America. In Middle America, a diverse radiation of specialists occupies understory treelets of lowland rainforests. The morphological and behavioural uniformity of specialists suggests that they form a monophyletic assemblage, diversifying after a single origin of specialization. Using ultraconserved element phylogenomics and ancestral state reconstruction, we show that shifts from opportunistic to obligately symbiotic evolved independently in South and Middle America. Furthermore, our analyses strongly support a remarkable case of convergence within the Middle American radiation, with two independently evolved specialist clades, arising nearly simultaneously from putative opportunistic ancestors during the late Pliocene. This repeated evolution of a complex phenotype suggests similar mechanisms behind trait shifts from opportunists to specialists, generating further questions about the selective forces driving specialization.</p>
Does ant-plant mutualism have spillover effects on the non-partner ant community?
<p>Mutualism benefits partner species and theory predicts these partnerships can affect the abundance, diversity, and composition of partner and non-partner species.<br> We used 16 years of monitoring data to determine the ant partner species of tree cholla cacti (<em>Cylindriopuntia imbricata</em>), which reward ants with extrafloral nectar in exchange for anti-herbivore defense. This long-term data revealed one dominant ant partner (<em>Liometopum apiculatum</em>) and two less common partners (<em>Crematogaster opuntiae</em> and <em>Forelius pruinosus</em>. We then used short-term characterization of the terrestrial ant community via pitfall trapping to sample partner and non-partner ant species across ten plots of varying cactus density. We found that the dominant ant partner tended a higher proportion cacti in plots of higher cactus density, and was also found at higher occurrence within the pitfall traps in higher density plots, suggesting strong positive feedbacks that promote ant partner occurrence where plant partners are available. Despite the strong association and increased partner occurrence, ant community-wide effects from this mutualism appear limited. Of the common ant species, the occurrence of a single non-partner ant species was negatively associated with cactus density and with the increased presence of <em>L. apiculatum</em>. Additionally, the composition and diversity of the ant community in our plots were insensitive to cactus density variation, indicating that positive effects of the mutualism on the dominant ant partner did not have cascading impacts on the ant community. This study provides novel evidence that exclusive mutualisms, even those with strong positive feedbacks, may be limited in the scope of their community-level effects.</p>
Climate and ant diversity explain the global distribution of ant-plant mutualisms
<p>Biotic interactions play an important role in shaping species geographic distributions and diversity patterns. However, the role of mutualistic interactions in shaping global plant diversity patterns remains poorly understood, particularly with respect to interactions with invertebrates. It is unclear how the nature of different mutualisms interacts with abiotic drivers and affects the distribution of mutualistic organisms. Here, we present a global-scale biogeographic analysis of three distinct ant-plant mutualisms, differentiating between plants bearing domatia, extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), and elaiosomes, based on comprehensive geographic distributions of ~19,000 flowering plants and ~13,000 ant species. Domatia and extrafloral nectaries involve indirect plant defences provided by ants, while elaiosomes attract ants to disperse seeds. Our results reveal distinct biogeographic patterns of different ant-plant mutualisms, with domatium- and EFN-bearing plant diversity decreasing sharply from the equator towards the poles, while elaiosome-bearing plants prevail at mid-latitudes. Present climate, especially mean annual temperature and precipitation, emerge as the strongest predictors of ant-associated plant diversity. In hot and moist regions, typically the tropics, the representation of EFN-bearing plants increases with the proportion of potential ant partners while domatium-bearing plants show no correlation with ants. In dry regions, plants with elaiosomes are strongly linked to interacting ant seed dispersers. Our results suggest that ants in combination with climate drive the spatial variation of plants bearing domatia, extrafloral nectaries, and elaiosomes, highlighting the importance of mutualistic interactions for understanding plant biogeography.</p>
Field testing a 13C labeling method in an East African ant-plant
<p>Tree carbon allocation is a dynamic process that depends on the tree's environment, but we know relatively little about how biotic interactions influece these dynamics. In central Kenya, the loss of vertebrate herbivores and the savanna's invasion by the ant <em>Pheidole megacephala</em> are disrupting mutualisms between the founational tree <em>Acacia drepanolobium</em> and its native ant defenders. Here we piloted a <sup>13</sup>Carbon (C) pulse-labeling mathod to investigate the influece of these biotic interactions on C allocation strategies by adult trees in situ. Trees withstood experimental conditions and took up sufficient labeled <sup>13</sup>CO<sub>2 </sub>for <sup>13</sup>C to be detected in various C sinks, including ant mutualists. The <sup>13</sup>C in ants collected shortly after labeling suggested that trees exposed to herbivores allocated relatively more newly assimilated C to native ant defenders. Our results demonstrate the viability of the pulse-labeling method and suggest the C allocation to ant partners depends on the biotic context of the tree, but further investigation with replication is needed to characterize such differences in relation to invasion and herbivore loss.</p>
Data from: Evolutionary déjà vu? A case of convergent evolution in an ant-plant association
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Climate and ant diversity explain the global distribution of ant-plant mutualisms
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Does ant-plant mutualism have spillover effects on the non-partner ant community?
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Field testing a 13C labeling method in an East African ant-plant
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Urbanization drives partner switching and loss of mutualism in an ant-plant symbiosis
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Data from: Distinctive fungal communities in an obligate African ant-plant mutualism
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Plant species-specificity of ant-plant mutualistic interactions: Differential predation of termites by Camponotus crassus on five species of extrafloral nectaried plants
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Data from: Population genomics and demographic sampling of the ant-plant Vachellia drepanolobium and its symbiotic ants from sites across its range in East Africa.
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Data from: Economy of scale: third partner strengthens a keystone ant-plant mutualism
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Data from: Ant-plant specialisation influenced more by network types than by disturbance, elevation, or latitude
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