ArticleDie Naturwissenschaften2019
Acacia trees with parasitic ants have fewer and less spacious spines than trees with mutualistic ants.
Article in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Short-term plasticity and variation in acacia ant-rewards under different conditions of ant occupancy and herbivory.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2021Article
- Relaxation of putative plant defenses in a tropical agroecosystem.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Obligate ant-defended plants provide food and shelter in exchange for protection against herbivores. Mesoamerican acacia trees have an obligate ant mutualism, but parasitic non-defending ants can also nest on the tree. We assessed whether rewards corresponded to ant defense within a plant species. As we expected, we found that parasite-inhabited trees had fewer swollen spines than ant-defended trees. Spine diameter was smaller in parasite-inhabited plants, but there were no differences in spine length, suggesting that spines serve as mechanical protection against herbivory. Parasite-inhabited plants may have reduced rewards because of plant differences when establishing, a plastic response to limited resources, or differential energy allocation when sensing the lack of defense.
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