ArticleAnnals of botany2025
The complex dynamics of ant-plant mutualisms: exploring the roles of plant-provided resources and bird predation on ants in shaping plant performance.
Article in Annals of botany, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsProtection mutualisms involve plants receiving defence against herbivores from predators, such as ants and insectivorous birds, in exchange for food resources. Ants can reduce herbivory by actively patrolling plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) or by tending trophobiotic insects that provide them with food rewards. Insectivorous birds also contribute to herbivore suppression but might simultaneously reduce ant activity through predation. Although both ants and birds can enhance plant performance, few studies have explored how the availability of multiple ant-associated resources influences herbivore suppression, or how bird predation on ants affects these ant-plant mutualisms. These gaps limit our understanding of the dynamics in complex multitrophic interactions.
methodsWe investigated how the availability of multiple food resources for ants and the predation exerted by insectivorous birds on ants influence the performance of the tropical shrub Banisteriopsis malifolia. To address this, we conducted two field experiments. The first manipulated the individual and combined presence of mutualistic ant resources (EFNs, myrmecophilous caterpillars and treehoppers). The second experiment manipulated the presence or absence of both ants and birds to assess their interactive effects. Plant performance was evaluated by measuring leaf herbivore damage, the number of fruits and fruit weight. KEY
resultsOur findings show that B. malifolia plants offering a full complement of mutualistic food resources for ants, including EFNs and trophobiotic insects, experienced significantly lower leaf herbivory and higher fruit production in comparison to plants lacking these resources. Bird exclusion resulted in increased herbivore damage and reduced fruit output, with these negative effects being even more pronounced when both birds and ants were excluded.
conclusionsOur findings highlight the complexity of multitrophic interactions in ant-plant mutualisms. They emphasize the importance of considering multiple trophic levels in plant defence strategies and underscore the cascading effects of predator interactions within natural ecosystems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.