Orthogonal fitness benefits of nitrogen and ants for nitrogen-limited plants in the presence of herbivores
| Autor: | Pringle, Elizabeth G, Ableson, Ian, Kerber, Jennifer, Vannette, Rachel L, Tao, Leiling |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
ecological stoichiometry
Evolutionary Biology Aphis nerii Law of the Minimum Ecology Ants Nitrogen fungi food and beverages Asclepias incarnata biochemical phenomena metabolism and nutrition resource availability ant-plant mutualism trophic cascade Formica obscuripes Aphids Ecological Applications Animals Herbivory Symbiosis honeydew |
| Zdroj: | Pringle, EG; Ableson, I; Kerber, J; Vannette, RL; & Tao, L. (2017). Orthogonal fitness benefits of nitrogen and ants for nitrogen-limited plants in the presence of herbivores. Ecology, 98(12), 3003-3010. doi: 10.1002/ecy.2013. UC Davis: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4c87383k Ecology, vol 98, iss 12 |
| Popis: | © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America Predictable effects of resource availability on plant growth-defense strategies provide a unifying theme in theories of direct anti-herbivore defense, but it is less clear how resource availability modulates plant indirect defense. Ant-plant-hemipteran interactions produce mutualistic trophic cascades when hemipteran-tending ants reduce total herbivory, and these interactions are a key component of plant indirect defense in most terrestrial ecosystems. Here we conducted an experiment to test how ant-plant-hemipteran interactions depend on nitrogen (N) availability by manipulating the presence of ants and aphids under different N fertilization treatments. Ants increased plant flowering success by decreasing the densities of herbivores, and the effects of ants on folivores were positively related to the density of aphids. Unexpectedly, N fertilization produced no changes in plant N concentrations. Plants grown in higher N grew and flowered more, but aphid honeydew chemistry stayed the same, and neither the density of aphids nor the rate of ant attraction per aphid changed with N addition. The positive effects of ants and N addition on plant fitness were thus independent of one another. We conclude that N was the plant's limiting nutrient and propose that addition of the limiting nutrient is unlikely to alter the strength of mutualistic trophic cascades. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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