Orthogonal fitness benefits of nitrogen and ants for nitrogen-limited plants in the presence of herbivores
| Autor: | Jennifer Kerber, Elizabeth G. Pringle, Rachel L. Vannette, Ian Ableson, Leiling Tao |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Herbivore Aphid Honeydew biology Ants Nitrogen Ecology fungi food and beverages biochemical phenomena metabolism and nutrition biology.organism_classification Formica obscuripes 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Symbiosis Aphis nerii Aphids Ecological stoichiometry Animals Herbivory Trophic cascade Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | Ecology. 98:3003-3010 |
| ISSN: | 0012-9658 |
| Popis: | 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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