Insect seed predators and environmental change
Insect seed predators and environmental change
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01575.x
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发表时间：
2008-12
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
O. Lewis;Sofia Gripenberg
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
O. Lewis;Sofia Gripenberg
种子到幼苗的转变可能是决定植物种群动态的关键阶段。昆虫在传播种子之前或之后杀死种子，可以影响单个植物物种的种群动态，并最终影响植物多样性和聚集组成。2我们讨论了昆虫种子捕食者维持植物群落多样性和结构组成的潜力，特别关注不同的热带森林栖息地。我们认为，我们的能力，以了解昆虫种子捕食者的功能性影响是阻碍了缺乏公正的信息（一）在不同的空间尺度上的猎物种子的密度的反应，和（ii）他们的寄主植物特异性。3.密度依赖性及其影响最好通过人工实地实验进行评估。这些方法可以揭示昆虫种子捕食者如何在行为和人口统计学上对一系列空间尺度上的单个宿主物种和多个宿主物种的密度作出反应。4寄主特异性及其影响可能最好通过以前主要应用于寄主-寄生物相互作用的定量食物网方法来解决。食物网将允许生态学家评估间接相互作用的可能重要性，如明显的竞争和明显的互惠结构植物组合，以及增加或删除个别资源或消费物种的功能后果。5.要充分量化种子捕食者的广泛影响，需要更好地整合种子阶段特定人口统计信息的研究，并量化种子捕食率变化对植物补充的长期影响。6合成与应用。与传粉昆虫等其他功能重要的昆虫群体相比，种子捕食者在农业生态系统的功能和可持续性以及全球环境变化对生态群落的影响方面受到的关注相对较少。更全面地了解昆虫种子-捕食者-植物相互作用的生态学，将对一系列自然和农业系统的保护和管理有价值。例如，种子捕食者群落生态学与预测有意或无意引入新的资源或消费物种的后果有关;在当地干扰后栖息地恢复的过程;以及管理农作物中害虫或有益种子捕食者的影响。此外，更大规模的昆虫种子捕食模式可能对气候变化和系统性生境改变和破碎化等全球环境变化驱动因素高度敏感，对生态群落的结构和组织产生更广泛的影响。
Summary 1 The seed-to-seedling transition may be a critical stage in determining the dynamics of plant populations. Insects which kill seeds either before or after dispersal can influence the population dynamics of individual plant species, and ultimately, plant diversity and assemblage composition. 2 We discuss the potential for insect seed predators to maintain diversity in plant assemblages and to structure their composition, with a particular focus on diverse tropical forest habitats. We suggest that our ability to understand the functional effects of insect seed predators is hampered by a shortage of unbiased information on (i) their responses to the density of prey seeds at different spatial scales, and (ii) their host plant specificity. 3 Density-dependence and its implications may be best assessed using manipulative field experiments. Such approaches can reveal how insect seed predators respond behaviourally and demographically to the density of individual host species and multiple host species across a range of spatial scales. 4 Host specificity and its implications may be best addressed through quantitative food web approaches previously applied largely to host–parasitoid interactions. Food webs will allow ecologists to assess the likely importance of indirect interactions such as apparent competition and apparent mutualism in structuring plant assemblages, and the functional consequences of adding or removing individual resource or consumer species. 5 Fully quantifying the wider effects of seed predators will require studies that better integrate seed stage-specific demographic information, and which quantify the long-term effects of variations in seed predation rates for plant recruitment. 6 Synthesis and applications. Compared to other functionally important insect groups such as pollinators, seed predators have received relatively little attention in the context of the functioning and sustainability of agro-ecosystems and the consequences of global environmental change for ecological communities. A fuller understanding of the ecology of insect seed predator–plant interactions will be valuable to conservation and management in a range of natural and agricultural systems. For example, seed predator community ecology is relevant to predicting the consequences of deliberately or unintentionally introducing novel resource or consumer species; the process of habitat recovery following local disturbances; and managing the effects of pest or beneficial seed predators in agricultural crops. Furthermore, patterns of insect seed predation on a larger scale are likely to be highly sensitive to global environmental change drivers such as climate change and systematic habitat modification and fragmentation, with implications for the structure and organization of ecological communities more widely.