Fine-scale variation of a keystone interaction: aphid-tending ants show stronger anti-herbivory effects on small leaves
Fine-scale variation of a keystone interaction: aphid-tending ants show stronger anti-herbivory effects on small leaves
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/s11829-020-09754-9
复制
发表时间：
2020-03
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Shuang Zhang;Yu-xin Zhang;K. Ma
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shuang Zhang;Yu-xin Zhang;K. Ma
食汁性昆虫之间的基石互惠作用的生态效应已从个体尺度到景观尺度进行了评价，但这些效应的细微尺度变化还没有得到很好的刻画。在这里，我们检验了一个简单的假设，即在小叶上，照顾蚜虫的蚂蚁对植物食草性的影响应该更强，数据集包括一种分布广泛的橡树(Quercus WutaishanSea)的15,602片叶子。结果表明，与我们的预测一致的是，随着叶片大小的增加，养蜂蚁的抗食草性降低。然而，进一步的分析表明，这种模式只有在生长季的开始(5月)和结束(9月)才显著。这些结果表明，即使在一棵树上，蚂蚁的抗草食作用也有相当大的差异。考虑到小叶通常比大叶更年轻、更有价值，我们的研究表明，植物的生物伙伴可以更好地保护它更有价值的部分。
The ecological effects of the keystone mutualism between sap-feeding insects have been evaluated from the individual to landscape scales, but these effects’ fine-scale variation has not been characterized well. Here, we tested a simple hypothesis that aphid-tending ants’ effect on plant herbivory should be stronger on small leaves, with a dataset that included 15,602 leaves of a widely distributed oak tree (Quercus wutaishansea). The results showed that, consistent with our prediction, aphid-tending ants’ anti-herbivory effect decreased with leaf size. However, further analysis showed that this pattern was significant only at the beginning (May) and end (September) of the growing season. These results show that there is considerable variation in ants’ anti-herbivory effect even within an individual tree. Given that small leaves often are younger and more valuable than larger ones, our study suggests that a plant’s biotic partners protect its more valuable parts better.