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Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest

In fragmented forests, tree diversity declines near edges but the ecological processes underlying this loss of diversity remain poorly understood. Theory predicts that top-down regulation of seedling recruitment by insect herbivores and fungal pathogens contributes to maintaining tree diversity in f...

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Autores principales: Krishnadas, Meghna, Bagchi, Robert, Sridhara, Sachin, Comita, Liza S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6207651/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30375390
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06997-2
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author Krishnadas, Meghna
Bagchi, Robert
Sridhara, Sachin
Comita, Liza S.
author_facet Krishnadas, Meghna
Bagchi, Robert
Sridhara, Sachin
Comita, Liza S.
author_sort Krishnadas, Meghna
collection PubMed
description In fragmented forests, tree diversity declines near edges but the ecological processes underlying this loss of diversity remain poorly understood. Theory predicts that top-down regulation of seedling recruitment by insect herbivores and fungal pathogens contributes to maintaining tree diversity in forests, but it is unknown whether proximity to forest edges compromises these diversity-enhancing biotic interactions. Here we experimentally demonstrate that weakened activity of fungal pathogens and insect herbivores reduced seedling diversity, despite similar diversity of seed rain, during recruitment near forest edges in a human-modified tropical landscape. Only at sites farthest from forest edges (90–100 m) did the application of pesticides lower seedling diversity relative to control plots. Notably, lower seedling diversity corresponded with weaker density-dependent mortality attributable to insects and fungi during the seed-to-seedling transition. We provide mechanistic evidence that edge-effects can manifest as cryptic losses of crucial biotic interactions that maintain diversity.
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spelling pubmed-62076512018-10-31 Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest Krishnadas, Meghna Bagchi, Robert Sridhara, Sachin Comita, Liza S. Nat Commun Article In fragmented forests, tree diversity declines near edges but the ecological processes underlying this loss of diversity remain poorly understood. Theory predicts that top-down regulation of seedling recruitment by insect herbivores and fungal pathogens contributes to maintaining tree diversity in forests, but it is unknown whether proximity to forest edges compromises these diversity-enhancing biotic interactions. Here we experimentally demonstrate that weakened activity of fungal pathogens and insect herbivores reduced seedling diversity, despite similar diversity of seed rain, during recruitment near forest edges in a human-modified tropical landscape. Only at sites farthest from forest edges (90–100 m) did the application of pesticides lower seedling diversity relative to control plots. Notably, lower seedling diversity corresponded with weaker density-dependent mortality attributable to insects and fungi during the seed-to-seedling transition. We provide mechanistic evidence that edge-effects can manifest as cryptic losses of crucial biotic interactions that maintain diversity. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6207651/ /pubmed/30375390 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06997-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Krishnadas, Meghna
Bagchi, Robert
Sridhara, Sachin
Comita, Liza S.
Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
title Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
title_full Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
title_fullStr Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
title_full_unstemmed Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
title_short Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
title_sort weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6207651/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30375390
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06997-2
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