| Title: | Indirect interactions among tropical tree species through shared rodent seed predators: a novel mechanism of tree species coexistence |
| Author(s): | Garzon-Lopez CX; Ballesteros-Mejia L; Ordonez A; Bohlman SA; Olff H; Jansen PA; |
| Address: | "Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Box 11103, Groningen, 9700 CC, The Netherlands. GIS and Remote Sensing Unit, Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Via E. Mach 1, 38010 S. Michele all'Adige (TN), Italy. Laboratorio de Genetica e Biodiversidade, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goias (UFG), Campus Samambaia 74001-970 Goiania, Goias, Brazil. Department of Bioscience, Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado, 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama. School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Box 110410, Gainesville, FL, 32611-0410, USA. Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Box 47, 6700, AA Wageningen, The Netherlands" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1461-0248 (Electronic) 1461-023X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The coexistence of numerous tree species in tropical forests is commonly explained by negative dependence of recruitment on the conspecific seed and tree density due to specialist natural enemies that attack seeds and seedlings ('Janzen-Connell' effects). Less known is whether guilds of shared seed predators can induce a negative dependence of recruitment on the density of different species of the same plant functional group. We studied 54 plots in tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, with contrasting mature tree densities of three coexisting large seeded tree species with shared seed predators. Levels of seed predation were far better explained by incorporating seed densities of all three focal species than by conspecific seed density alone. Both positive and negative density dependencies were observed for different species combinations. Thus, indirect interactions via shared seed predators can either promote or reduce the coexistence of different plant functional groups in tropical forest" |
| Keywords: | Animals *Ecosystem Herbivory Logistic Models Panama *Rodentia *Seeds Trees/*physiology Tropical Climate Apparent competition Astrocaryum standleyanum Attalea butyracea Dipteryx oleifera Janzen-Connell hypothesis apparent mutualism indirect effects seed pr; |
| Notes: | "MedlineGarzon-Lopez, Carol X Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana Ordonez, Alejandro Bohlman, Stephanie A Olff, Han Jansen, Patrick A eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2015/05/06 Ecol Lett. 2015 Aug; 18(8):752-760. doi: 10.1111/ele.12452. Epub 2015 May 4" |
