ArticleAoB PLANTS2014
Extrafloral nectar fuels ant life in deserts.
Article in AoB PLANTS, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extrafloral Nectaries in Woody Plants: Toward an Integrated Framework for Ant-Mediated Plant Defense.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Water availability shapes temporal patterns of extrafloral nectar secretion and ant visitation to a Neotropical legume.Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany) · 2026Article
- Effect of Time-Since-Fire on Ant Communities in a Semi-Arid Landscape.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Extrafloral Nectary-Bearing Plants Recover Ant Association Benefits Faster and More Effectively after Frost-Fire Events Than Frost.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Macroecological diversification of ants is linked to angiosperm evolution.Evolution letters · 2023Article
- Does ant-plant mutualism have spillover effects on the non-partner ant community?Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Her Majesty's Desert Throne: The Ecology of Queen Butterfly Oviposition on Mojave Milkweed Host Plants.Insects · 2020Article
- Subterranean Desert Rodents (Genus Ctenomys) Create Soil Patches Enriched in Root Endophytic Fungal Propagules.Microbial ecology · 2019Article
- Article
- First description of extrafloral nectaries in Opuntia robusta (Cactaceae): Anatomy and ultrastructure.PloS one · 2018Article
- Sugary secretions of wasp galls: a want-to-be extrafloral nectar?Annals of botany · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Interactions mediated by extrafloral nectary (EFN)-bearing plants that reward ants with a sweet liquid secretion are well documented in temperate and tropical habitats. However, their distribution and abundance in deserts are poorly known. In this study, we test the predictions that biotic interactions between EFN plants and ants are abundant and common also in arid communities and that EFNs are only functional when new vegetative and reproductive structures are developing. In a seasonal desert of northwestern Argentina, we surveyed the richness and phenology of EFN plants and their associated ants and examined the patterns in ant-plant interaction networks. We found that 25 ant species and 11 EFN-bearing plant species were linked together through 96 pairs of associations. Plants bearing EFNs were abundant, representing ca. 19 % of the species encountered in transects and 24 % of the plant cover. Most ant species sampled (ca. 77 %) fed on EF nectar. Interactions showed a marked seasonal pattern: EFN secretion was directly related to plant phenology and correlated with the time of highest ant ground activity. Our results reveal that EFN-mediated interactions are ecologically relevant components of deserts, and that EFN-bearing plants are crucial for the survival of desert ant communities.
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