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Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks

BACKGROUND: Ecological communities of interacting species analyzed as complex networks have shown that species dependence on their counterparts is more complex than expected at random. As for other potentially mutualistic interactions, ant-plant networks mediated by extrafloral nectar show a nested...

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Autores principales: Díaz-Castelazo, Cecilia, Martínez-Adriano, Cristian A., Dáttilo, Wesley, Rico-Gray, Victor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7050545/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32161686
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8314
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author Díaz-Castelazo, Cecilia
Martínez-Adriano, Cristian A.
Dáttilo, Wesley
Rico-Gray, Victor
author_facet Díaz-Castelazo, Cecilia
Martínez-Adriano, Cristian A.
Dáttilo, Wesley
Rico-Gray, Victor
author_sort Díaz-Castelazo, Cecilia
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Ecological communities of interacting species analyzed as complex networks have shown that species dependence on their counterparts is more complex than expected at random. As for other potentially mutualistic interactions, ant-plant networks mediated by extrafloral nectar show a nested (asymmetric) structure with a core of generalist species dominating the interaction pattern. Proposed factors structuring ecological networks include encounter probability (e.g., species abundances and habitat heterogeneity), behavior, phylogeny, and body size. While the importance of underlying factors that influence the structure of ant-plant networks have been separately explored, the simultaneous contribution of several biological and ecological attributes inherent to the species, guild or habitat level has not been addressed. METHODS: For a tropical seasonal site we recorded (in 48 censuses) the frequency of pairwise ant-plant interactions mediated by extrafloral nectaries (EFN) on different habitats and studied the resultant network structure. We addressed for the first time the role of mechanistic versus neutral determinants at the ‘fine-grain’ structure (pairwise interactions) of ant-plant networks. We explore the simultaneous contribution of several attributes of plant and ant species (i.e., EFN abundance and distribution, ant head length, behavioral dominance and invasive status), and habitat attributes (i.e., vegetation structure) in prevailing interactions as well as in overall network topology (community). RESULTS: Our studied network was highly-nested and non-modular, with core species having high species strengths (higher strength values for ants than plants) and low specialization. Plants had higher dependences on ants than vice versa. We found that habitat heterogeneity in vegetation structure (open vs. shaded habitats) was the main factor explaining network and fine-grain structure, with no evidence of neutral (abundance) effects. DISCUSSION: Core ant species are relevant to most plants species at the network showing adaptations to nectar consumption and deterrent behavior. Thus larger ants interact with more plant species which, together with higher dependence of plants on ants, suggests potential biotic defense at a community scale. In our study site, heterogeneity in the ant-plant interactions among habitats is so prevalent that it emerges at community-level structural properties. High frequency of morphologically diverse and temporarily-active EFNs in all habitats suggests the relevance and seasonality of plant biotic defense provided by ants. The robust survey of ecological interactions and their biological/ecological correlates that we addressed provides insight of the interplay between adaptive-value traits and neutral effects in ecological networks.
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spelling pubmed-70505452020-03-11 Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks Díaz-Castelazo, Cecilia Martínez-Adriano, Cristian A. Dáttilo, Wesley Rico-Gray, Victor PeerJ Biodiversity BACKGROUND: Ecological communities of interacting species analyzed as complex networks have shown that species dependence on their counterparts is more complex than expected at random. As for other potentially mutualistic interactions, ant-plant networks mediated by extrafloral nectar show a nested (asymmetric) structure with a core of generalist species dominating the interaction pattern. Proposed factors structuring ecological networks include encounter probability (e.g., species abundances and habitat heterogeneity), behavior, phylogeny, and body size. While the importance of underlying factors that influence the structure of ant-plant networks have been separately explored, the simultaneous contribution of several biological and ecological attributes inherent to the species, guild or habitat level has not been addressed. METHODS: For a tropical seasonal site we recorded (in 48 censuses) the frequency of pairwise ant-plant interactions mediated by extrafloral nectaries (EFN) on different habitats and studied the resultant network structure. We addressed for the first time the role of mechanistic versus neutral determinants at the ‘fine-grain’ structure (pairwise interactions) of ant-plant networks. We explore the simultaneous contribution of several attributes of plant and ant species (i.e., EFN abundance and distribution, ant head length, behavioral dominance and invasive status), and habitat attributes (i.e., vegetation structure) in prevailing interactions as well as in overall network topology (community). RESULTS: Our studied network was highly-nested and non-modular, with core species having high species strengths (higher strength values for ants than plants) and low specialization. Plants had higher dependences on ants than vice versa. We found that habitat heterogeneity in vegetation structure (open vs. shaded habitats) was the main factor explaining network and fine-grain structure, with no evidence of neutral (abundance) effects. DISCUSSION: Core ant species are relevant to most plants species at the network showing adaptations to nectar consumption and deterrent behavior. Thus larger ants interact with more plant species which, together with higher dependence of plants on ants, suggests potential biotic defense at a community scale. In our study site, heterogeneity in the ant-plant interactions among habitats is so prevalent that it emerges at community-level structural properties. High frequency of morphologically diverse and temporarily-active EFNs in all habitats suggests the relevance and seasonality of plant biotic defense provided by ants. The robust survey of ecological interactions and their biological/ecological correlates that we addressed provides insight of the interplay between adaptive-value traits and neutral effects in ecological networks. PeerJ Inc. 2020-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7050545/ /pubmed/32161686 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8314 Text en ©2020 Díaz-Castelazo et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Díaz-Castelazo, Cecilia
Martínez-Adriano, Cristian A.
Dáttilo, Wesley
Rico-Gray, Victor
Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
title Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
title_full Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
title_fullStr Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
title_full_unstemmed Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
title_short Relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
title_sort relative contribution of ecological and biological attributes in the fine-grain structure of ant-plant networks
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7050545/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32161686
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8314
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