Dear neighbor: Trees with extrafloral nectaries facilitate defense and growth of adjacent undefended trees
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Ecology, Jahrgang 104, Nr. 7, e4057, 07.2023.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Dear neighbor: Trees with extrafloral nectaries facilitate defense and growth of adjacent undefended trees
AU - Staab, Michael
AU - Pietsch, Stefanie
AU - Yan, Haoru
AU - Blüthgen, Nico
AU - Cheng, Anpeng
AU - Li, Yi
AU - Zhang, Naili
AU - Ma, Keping
AU - Liu, Xiaojuan
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Ecological Society of America.
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - Plant diversity can increase productivity. One mechanism behind this biodiversity effect is facilitation, which is when one species increases the performance of another species. Plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) establish defense mutualisms with ants. However, whether EFN plants facilitate defense of neighboring non-EFN plants is unknown. Synthesizing data on ants, herbivores, leaf damage, and defense traits from a forest biodiversity experiment, we show that trees growing adjacent to EFN trees had higher ant biomass and species richness and lower caterpillar biomass than conspecific controls without EFN-bearing neighbors. Concurrently, the composition of defense traits in non-EFN trees changed. Thus, when non-EFN trees benefit from lower herbivore loads as a result of ants spilling over from EFN tree neighbors, this may allow relatively reduced resource allocation to defense in the former, potentially explaining the higher growth of those trees. Via this mutualist-mediated facilitation, promoting EFN trees in tropical reforestation could foster carbon capture and multiple other ecosystem functions.
AB - Plant diversity can increase productivity. One mechanism behind this biodiversity effect is facilitation, which is when one species increases the performance of another species. Plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) establish defense mutualisms with ants. However, whether EFN plants facilitate defense of neighboring non-EFN plants is unknown. Synthesizing data on ants, herbivores, leaf damage, and defense traits from a forest biodiversity experiment, we show that trees growing adjacent to EFN trees had higher ant biomass and species richness and lower caterpillar biomass than conspecific controls without EFN-bearing neighbors. Concurrently, the composition of defense traits in non-EFN trees changed. Thus, when non-EFN trees benefit from lower herbivore loads as a result of ants spilling over from EFN tree neighbors, this may allow relatively reduced resource allocation to defense in the former, potentially explaining the higher growth of those trees. Via this mutualist-mediated facilitation, promoting EFN trees in tropical reforestation could foster carbon capture and multiple other ecosystem functions.
KW - biodiversity
KW - Formicidae
KW - herbivory
KW - leaf traits
KW - mutualism
KW - reforestation
KW - spillover
KW - trophic interactions
KW - Biology
KW - Ecosystems Research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85158013316&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/ecy.4057
DO - 10.1002/ecy.4057
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 37078562
AN - SCOPUS:85158013316
VL - 104
JO - Ecology
JF - Ecology
SN - 0012-9658
IS - 7
M1 - e4057
ER -