Change in biomass of symbiotic ants throughout the ontogeny of a myrmecophyte, Macaranga beccariana (Euphorbiaceae)
Change in biomass of symbiotic ants throughout the ontogeny of a myrmecophyte, Macaranga beccariana (Euphorbiaceae)
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共生蚂蚁在大戟科植物Macaranga beccariana（大戟科）个体发育过程中生物量的变化
DOI：
10.1007/s10265-012-0500-z
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Chihiro Handa・Tadahiro Okubo・Aogu Yoneyama・Masashi Nakamura・Mari Sakaguchi・Narumi Takahashi・Mayumi Okamoto・Ayumi Tanaka-Oda・Tanaka Kenzo・Tomoaki Ichie・Takao Itioka
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
佐伯浩司;他;Chihiro Handa・Tadahiro Okubo・Aogu Yoneyama・Masashi Nakamura・Mari Sakaguchi・Narumi Takahashi・Mayumi Okamoto・Ayumi Tanaka-Oda・Tanaka Kenzo・Tomoaki Ichie・Takao Itioka
macarangamymecophytes （anti -plants）为它们的伴侣共生蚂蚁（plant- plants）提供食物体作为它们的主要食物，并由植物保护它们免受食草动物的侵害。分配给食物体的资源数量决定了植物蚁群的大小，从而决定了蚂蚁防御的强度（植物对食草动物的防御）。由于资源分配的约束随着植物的生长而变化，植物-蚁群的大小被假设随着macarangamymecophyte的个体发生而变化。为了确定植物-蚁群相对大小的个体发生变化，我们测量了婆罗洲低地热带雨林一种桃生植物（Macaranga beccariana）在不同个体发生阶段的整个植物-蚁群和所有地上部分的干重。蚂蚁生物量随植物生物量的增加而增加。然而，增长率逐渐下降，并且蚂蚁生物量似乎在树木开始分枝时达到上限。随着植物生物量的增加，蚂蚁/植物生物量比呈下降趋势，且下降速度逐渐加快。我们推断，蚂蚁/植物生物量比的个体发生性降低是由于与分支开始相关的生理变化引起的蚂蚁资源分配和食物奖励的个体发生性变化。
Macarangamyrmecophytes (ant-plants) provide their partner symbiotic ants (plant-ants) with food bodies as their main food, and they are protected by the plant-ants from herbivores. The amount of resource allocated to food bodies determines the plant-ant colony size and consequently determines the intensity of ant defense (anti-herbivore defense by plant-ants). As constraints in resource allocation change as plants grow, the plant-ant colony size is hypothesized to change with the ontogenesis ofMacarangamyrmecophyte. To determine the ontogenetic change in the relative size of the plant-ant colony, we measured the dry weights of the whole plant-ant colony and all of the aboveground parts of trees at various ontogenetic stages for a myrmecophytic species (Macaranga beccariana) in a Bornean lowland tropical rain forest. Ant biomass increased as plant biomass increased. However, the rate of increase gradually declined, and the ant biomass appeared to reach a ceiling once trees began to branch. The ant/plant biomass ratio consistently decreased as plant biomass increased, with the rate of decrease gradually accelerating. We infer that the ontogenetic reduction in ant/plant biomass ratio is caused by an ontogenetic change in resource allocation to food rewards for ants related to the physiological changes accompanying the beginning of branching.