Network reorganization and breakdown of an ant - plant protection mutualism with elevation

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F17%3A43895545" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/17:43895545 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1850/20162564" target="_blank" >http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1850/20162564</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2564" target="_blank" >10.1098/rspb.2016.2564</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Network reorganization and breakdown of an ant - plant protection mutualism with elevation

Original language description

Both the abiotic environment and the composition of animal and plant communities change with elevation. For mutualistic species, these changes are expected to result in altered partner availability, and shifts in context-dependent benefits for partners. To test these predictions, we assessed the network structure of terrestrial ant-plant mutualists and how the benefits to plants of ant inhabitation changed with elevation in tropical forest in Papua New Guinea. At higher elevations, ant-plants were rarer, species richness of both ants and plants decreased, and the average ant or plant species interacted with fewer partners. However, networks became increasingly connected and less specialized, more than could be accounted for by reductions in ant-plant abundance. On the most common ant-plant, ants recruited less and spent less time attacking a surrogate herbivore at higher elevations, and herbivory damage increased. These changes were driven by turnover of ant species rather than by within-species shifts in protective behaviour. We speculate that reduced partner availability at higher elevations results in less specialized networks, while lower temperatures mean that even for ant-inhabited plants, benefits are reduced. Under increased abiotic stress, mutualistic networks can break down, owing to a combination of lower population sizes, and a reduction in context-dependent mutualistic benefits.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B - Biological Sciences

ISSN

0962-8452

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

284

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1850

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

10

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

000397883100013

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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