10.5061/DRYAD.4M897
Campos-Navarrete, María José
Autonomous University of Yucatán
Abdala-Roberts, Luis
Autonomous University of Yucatán
Munguía-Rosas, Miguel A.
Instituto Politécnico Nacional
Parra-Tabla, Víctor
Autonomous University of Yucatán
Data from: Are tree species diversity and genotypic diversity effects on
insect herbivores mediated by ants?
Dryad
dataset
2015
Ants
species diversity.
herbivores
Phyllocnistis meliacella
Swietenia macrophylla
Diet Breadth
Genotypic diversity
protection mutualism
Hypsipyla grandella
2015-08-10T18:06:35Z
2015-08-10T18:06:35Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132671
29291 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Plant diversity can influence predators and omnivores and such effects may
in turn influence herbivores and plants. However, evidence for these
ecological feedbacks is rare. We evaluated if the effects of tree species
(SD) and genotypic diversity (GD) on the abundance of different guilds of
insect herbivores associated with big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia
macrophylla) were contingent upon the protective effects of ants tending
extra-floral nectaries of this species. This study was conducted within a
larger experiment consisting of mahogany monocultures and species
polycultures of four species and –within each of these two plot types–
mahogany was represented by either one or four maternal families. We
selected 24 plots spanning these treatment combinations, 10 mahogany
plants/plot, and within each plot experimentally reduced ant abundance on
half of the selected plants, and surveyed ant and herbivore abundance.
There were positive effects of SD on generalist leaf-chewers and
sap-feeders, but for the latter group this effect depended on the ant
reduction treatment: SD positively influenced sap-feeders under ambient
ant abundance but had no effect when ant abundance was reduced; at the
same time, ants had negative effects on sap feeders in monoculture but no
effect in polyculture. In contrast, SD did not influence specialist
stem-borers or leaf-miners and this effect was not contingent upon ant
reduction. Finally, GD did not influence any of the herbivore guilds
studied, and such effects did not depend on the ant treatment. Overall, we
show that tree species diversity influenced interactions between a focal
plant species (mahogany) and ants, and that such effects in turn mediated
plant diversity effects on some (sap-feeders) but not all the herbivores
guilds studied. Our results suggest that the observed patterns are
dependent on the combined effects of herbivore identity, diet breadth, and
the source of plant diversity.
Abundance herbivores of tropical trees, effects of diversityData is
collected in the field,on the first column Species diversity with two
levels monoculture and polyculture. Second column Genotypic diversity with
two levels one maternal family and four maternal families. Rest of columns
Ants, Sap feeders, leaf chewers (abundance) , H. grandella y P. meliacella
(attacks as proxy of abundance)DataBaseMJC-N.csv
Yucatán
México