10.5061/DRYAD.N2Z34TMVJ
Ruzi, Selina
0000-0003-1973-8526
North Carolina State University
Zalamea, Paul-Camilo
University of South Florida
Roche, Daniel
West Virginia University
Achury, Rafael
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Dalling, James
0000-0002-6488-9895
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Suarez, Andrew
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Data from: Can variation in seed removal patterns of Neotropical pioneer
tree species be explained by local ant community composition?
Dryad
dataset
2020
FOS: Biological sciences
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
120205
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
1069157
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
1701501
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
https://ror.org/047426m28
Dissertation Travel Grant
2020-11-16T00:00:00Z
2020-11-16T00:00:00Z
en
736538 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Many plants depend on animals for seed dispersal, and ants commonly fill
this role. We examined if heterogeneity in ant community composition among
sites, between above- and below-ground foraging guilds, or between seasons
predicts observed variation in seed removal rates for 12 nonmyrmecochorous
Neotropical pioneer tree species on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. We also
investigated if ants associated with removing seeds differed in specific
morphological characters from the larger ant community. We observed
ant-seed interactions at caches to determine which ants removed seeds of
12 tree species. We also sampled ant community composition by placing 315
pitfall traps and 160 subterranean traps across the five sites where seed
removal rates were quantified. Above-ground ant community composition
varied by site but not season. Among-site variation in ant composition did
not predict seed removal patterns at these same sites. Below-ground ant
communities differed from above-ground ant communities but were not
structured by either site or seed cache type. Finally, ants that removed
seeds did not differ morphologically from the broader ant community.
Overall, our results suggest ant communities vary over relatively small
spatial scales but exhibit a high degree of functional redundancy in terms
of seed removal services provided for Neotropical pioneer tree species.
The data was collected at five sites on Barro Colorado Island, in the
Republic of Panama. Data on seed removal for 12 Neotropical pioneer tree
species and the ants observed removing those seeds were collected once
during the dry season and once during the wet season of 2013. These data
were collected by observing seed caches consisting of 10 seeds placed
within the lid of a petri dish on the forest floor over 47 hours. Data on
seed removal for 6 Neotropical pioneer tree species and the associated
ants were collected once in the wet season of 2013. These data were
collected by placing seed caches of 10 seeds within the topsoil and
pairing these with associated subterranean traps to catch ants. Data on
the above-ground ant community was captured using pitfall traps placed
during the wet season of 2013 and the dry season of 2014.
To access the R project associated with this data deposition please
see https://github.com/sruzi24/Ruzi_etal_seed_removal_and_ant_communities.