A trophic cascade induced by predatory ants in a fig-fig wasp mutualism
A trophic cascade induced by predatory ants in a fig-fig wasp mutualism
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无花果-无花果黄蜂互利共生中捕食性蚂蚁诱导的营养级联
DOI：
10.1111/1365-2656.12219
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发表时间：
2014-09-01
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Wang, Rui-Wu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wang, Bo;Geng, Xiang-Zong;Wang, Rui-Wu
1.当捕食者直接降低食草动物的密度或改变食草动物的行为，从而间接增加植物生产力时，就会发生营养级联。捕食者-食草动物-植物的背景是众所周知的，但一些捕食者攻击对植物有益的物种（如。G.传粉者）和/或食草动物的敌人（例如寄生虫），它们在互惠关系动态中的作用在很大程度上仍未被探索.调查了我国西南地区无花果树上捕食性蚂蚁的种类，并研究了优势种织蚁Oecophylla smaragdina对无花果树的捕食作用。然后，我们测试的影响，编织蚂蚁的传粉和非传粉榕小蜂产卵行为的蚂蚁排斥实验。比较了织蚁对榕小蜂群落结构和种子产量的影响。聪明的3.当昆虫到达产卵时，Oecophylla smaragdina捕获的非传粉黄蜂（Platyneura mayri）比传粉者更多。当排除蚂蚁时，更多的非传粉者产卵到无花果和更少的传粉者进入无花果。此外，O. smaragdina产生了更多的传粉者后代和更少的非传粉者后代，显著改变了群落结构。此外，F.总状花序在织蚁栖息的树木上产生的种子显著更多。Oecophylla smaragdina捕食扭转了两种最常见的黄蜂物种在产卵阶段的优势地位，有利于传粉者。这种行为模式反映在黄蜂的后代生产中，传粉者的后代在编织蚂蚁居住的树上生产的无花果中占主导地位，而非传粉者的后代在其他蚂蚁居住的树上生产的无花果中最丰富。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，编织蚁的捕食限制了非授粉的P. mayri的成功，因此间接地有利于互利共生，通过增加传粉者和植物的繁殖成功。因此，捕食是一个关键的功能因素，可以塑造一个传粉植物互惠系统的社区结构。
1. A trophic cascade occurs when predators directly decrease the densities, or change the behaviour, of herbivores and thus indirectly increase plant productivity. The predator-herbivore-plant context is well known, but some predators attack species beneficial to plants (e. g. pollinators) and/or enemies of herbivores (e.g. parasites), and their role in the dynamics of mutualisms remains largely unexplored.2. We surveyed the predatory ant species and studied predation by the dominant ant species, the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina, associated with the fig tree Ficus racemosa in southwest China. We then tested the effects of weaver ants on the oviposition behaviour of pollinating and non-pollinating fig wasps in an ant-exclusion experiment. The effects of weaver ants on fig wasp community structure and fig seed production were then compared between trees with and without O. smaragdina.3. Oecophylla smaragdina captured more non-pollinating wasps (Platyneura mayri) than pollinators as the insects arrived to lay eggs. When ants were excluded, more non-pollinators laid eggs into figs and fewer pollinators entered figs. Furthermore, trees with O. smaragdina produced more pollinator offspring and fewer non-pollinator offspring, shifting the community structure significantly. In addition, F. racemosa produced significantly more seeds on trees inhabited by weaver ants.4. Oecophylla smaragdina predation reverses the dominance of the two commonest wasp species at the egg-laying stage and favours the pollinators. This behavioural pattern is mirrored by wasp offspring production, with pollinators' offspring dominating figs produced by trees inhabited by weaver ants, and offspring of the non-pollinator P. mayri most abundant in figs on trees inhabited by other ants.5. Overall, our results suggest that predation by weaver ants limits the success of the non-pollinating P. mayri and therefore indirectly benefits the mutualism by increasing the reproductive success of both the pollinators and the plant. Predation is thus a key functional factor that can shape the community structure of a pollinator-plant mutualistic system.