The equal effectiveness of different defensive strategies.
The equal effectiveness of different defensive strategies.
复制标题
不同防守策略的同等效力
DOI：
10.1038/srep13049
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发表时间：
2015-08-12
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Ma K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhang S;Zhang Y;Ma K
植物已经进化出多种防御策略来抵抗食草，但在种间水平上，这些策略的相对有效性评估很差。在这项研究中，我们比较了依赖蚂蚁作为间接防御者的物种和主要依赖自身直接防御的物种之间的食草水平。使用包含 871 个物种和 1,405 个数据点的数据集，我们发现，一般来说，与蚂蚁相关的物种的食草性水平与对蚂蚁没有吸引力的物种相同。该模式不受植物生命形式、气候和物种之间的系统发育关系的影响。有趣的是，与只为蚂蚁提供食物或筑巢空间或不提供奖励的物种相比，为蚂蚁提供食物和筑巢空间的物种的食草性明显较低。食草性与纬度之间存在负相关关系，但蚂蚁可以改变这种模式。这些发现表明，在种间水平上，不同防御策略的有效性可能是相同的。考虑到草食性对植物性能和适应性的影响，不同防御策略的同等有效性可能在群落尺度上不同物种的共存中发挥重要作用。
Plants have evolved a variety of defensive strategies to resist herbivory, but at the interspecific level, the relative effectiveness of these strategies has been poorly evaluated. In this study, we compared the level of herbivory between species that depend on ants as indirect defenders and species that rely primarily on their own direct defenses. Using a dataset of 871 species and 1,405 data points, we found that in general, ant-associated species had levels of herbivory equal to those of species that are unattractive to ants; the pattern was unaffected by plant life form, climate and phylogenetic relationships between species. Interestingly, species that offer both food and nesting spaces for ants suffered significantly lower herbivory compared to species that offer either food or nesting spaces only or no reward for ants. A negative relationship between herbivory and latitude was detected, but the pattern can be changed by ants. These findings suggest that, at the interspecific level, the effectiveness of different defensive strategies may be equal. Considering the effects of herbivory on plant performance and fitness, the equal effectiveness of different defensive strategies may play an important role in the coexistence of various species at the community scale.