Data/hora: 11/06/2024 11:26:22

Provedor de dados: | 82
País: | Brazil
Título: | Ant-plant associations in different forests in Venezuela
Autores: | Goitía,William; Jaffé,Klaus.
Data: | 2009-02-01
Ano: | 2009
Palavras-chave: | Myrmecophilous plant; Myrmecophyte.
Resumo: | We evaluated the hypothesis that the abundance and species distribution of two different kinds of myrmecophilous plants is influenced differently by the ant diversity and abundance. In eight different natural forests in Venezuela we estimated the species richness and abundance of plants, ants on the soil and on the canopy, the leaf damage of plants and soil nutrients. The main results of the study show that plants with domatia (PD) and plants with extrafloral nectaries (PEFN) have different relationships with ants and suffer from different ecological constraints. PD attract a more specific group of ants than PEFN. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that domatia are adaptations that help plants to increase rare nutrient uptake rather than for herbivore defense. We found that PEFN attract a larger variety of ant species than PD, and ant abundance seems to limit the ecological range of PEFN. The attraction of ants as a mechanism to reduce herbivory, as done by PEFN, does not seem to be superior to alternative anti-herbivore mechanisms used by other plants. Contrary to many former studies, we found that ants are generally more diverse on the soil compared to canopies.
Tipo: | Info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Idioma: | Inglês
Identificador: | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-566X2009000100002
Editor: | Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil
Relação: | 10.1590/S1519-566X2009000100002
Formato: | text/html
Fonte: | Neotropical Entomology  v.38 n.1 2009
Fonte: | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess