Reduced benefits of ant occupation for ant-trees in oil palm compared with heavily logged forest

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F20%3A43901390" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/20:43901390 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60077344:_____/20:00531490

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13199-020-00684-x" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13199-020-00684-x</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13199-020-00684-x" target="_blank" >10.1007/s13199-020-00684-x</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Reduced benefits of ant occupation for ant-trees in oil palm compared with heavily logged forest

Original language description

Understanding interactions between species in altered ecosystems is important, as they influence resilience and opportunities for restoration. Here we explore a multipartite interaction between an important early succession myrmecophytic tree in Borneo (Macaranga pearsonii), and its ant mutualists that provide protection from herbivores. We compare the mutualistic system between two highly degraded habitats that are candidates for future restoration: oil palm plantation and recently heavily-logged forest. For each tree we measured tree structure (height, diameter, number of branches), leaf biomass and herbivore damage. We also measured soil characteristics (phosphate and nitrate content, pH, density) and canopy openness as these may influence tree health. For each branch, we quantified number of ant workers, brood, alates and queens as well as number of coccids. The ants tend these symbiotic coccids for their sugar-rich exudate produced by sucking the tree&apos;s sap. We demonstrate that herbivore damage was up to twice as high in oil palm plantation compared to heavily-logged forest. This herbivory increase was not related directly to changes in abiotic conditions or to higher herbivore pressure, but rather to the distribution of the ant workers within the trees. However, trees in oil palm were able to compensate for the increased herbivory by increasing leaf production. For similar ant abundance, fewer branches were occupied in oil palm plantation, and there were relatively more ants in the presence of coccids. Taken together, our findings indicate that although this mutualism has variation in its functioning, with reduced benefits for the tree of ant occupation in oil palm plantation, the mutualism persists in oil palm. ThereforeMacaranga pearsoniiis a viable candidate for forest restoration (just as in secondary forest) if these trees are allowed to grow in oil palm plantations.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

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

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA16-09427S" target="_blank" >GA16-09427S: The impacts of tropical forest degradation and fragmentation on ant-plant mutualisms, and consequences for plant community dynamics</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Symbiosis

ISSN

0334-5114

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

81

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

79-91

UT code for WoS article

000540976500001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85086735255