ArticleNature communications2018
Weaker plant-enemy interactions decrease tree seedling diversity with edge-effects in a fragmented tropical forest.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Enemies mediate distance- and density-dependent mortality of tree seeds and seedlings: a meta-analysis of fungicide, insecticide and exclosure studies.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Getting by With a Little Help From Fungal Friends: Seed-Associated Endophytes Contribute to Seed Defense Against Fungal Pathogens in Keystone Tropical Trees.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Drier conditions diminish plant coexistence via soil microbes in a tropical humid forest.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Scale-dependent decoupling of leaf traits and phylogeny reveals dimension-specific environmental filtering in Polyspora chrysandra-associated montane forests.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Overgrazing on unmanaged grassland interfered with the restoration of adjacent grazing-banned grassland by affecting soil properties and microbial community.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Climate and forest loss interactively restructure trait composition across a human-modified landscape.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Accelerated forest fragmentation leads to critical increase in tropical forest edge area.Science advances · 2021Article
- Limited contributions of plant pathogens to density-dependent seedling mortality of mast fruiting Bornean trees.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Edge effects alter the role of fungi and insects in mediating functional composition and diversity of seedling recruits in a fragmented tropical forest.Annals of botany · 2020Article
- Community context for mechanisms of disease dilution: insights from linking epidemiology and plant-soil feedback theory.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2020Review
- Tree species traits affect which natural enemies drive the Janzen-Connell effect in a temperate forest.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Distance-dependent seed‒seedling transition in the treeCommunications biology · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In fragmented forests, tree diversity declines near edges but the ecological processes underlying this loss of diversity remain poorly understood. Theory predicts that top-down regulation of seedling recruitment by insect herbivores and fungal pathogens contributes to maintaining tree diversity in forests, but it is unknown whether proximity to forest edges compromises these diversity-enhancing biotic interactions. Here we experimentally demonstrate that weakened activity of fungal pathogens and insect herbivores reduced seedling diversity, despite similar diversity of seed rain, during recruitment near forest edges in a human-modified tropical landscape. Only at sites farthest from forest edges (90-100 m) did the application of pesticides lower seedling diversity relative to control plots. Notably, lower seedling diversity corresponded with weaker density-dependent mortality attributable to insects and fungi during the seed-to-seedling transition. We provide mechanistic evidence that edge-effects can manifest as cryptic losses of crucial biotic interactions that maintain diversity.
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