Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
Oecologia. 2012 Apr;168(4):1057-68. doi: 10.1007/s00442-011-2137-3. Epub 2011 Oct 20.
Community ecology aims to understand how species interactions shape species diversity and abundance. Although less studied than predatory or competitive interactions, facilitative interactions can be important in communities associated with ephemeral microhabitats. Successful recruitment from these habitats requires species to rapidly colonize, develop, and disperse during brief periods of habitat suitability. Interactions between organisms, including processing chain interactions whereby initial consumers alter resources in ways that improve their quality for subsequent consumers, could aid these processes. The terrestrial egg masses of red-eyed treefrogs (Agalychnis callidryas) are a resource for predatory wasps (Agelaia spp., Polybia rejecta) and a microhabitat and resource for saprovoric and pathogenic fungi and saprovoric flies (Megaselia spp., Psychoda savaiiensis). We investigate how interactions with wasps might facilitate fly and fungal colonization of and survival on frog egg masses. Our results indicate that wasps facilitate fungal colonization, whereas flies appear not to, and that both wasps and fungi generate frog egg carrion that attracts saprovoric flies to oviposit and increases the survival of fly larvae. While studies of colonization order often focus on inhibition by early colonizers of subsequent arrivals, this study demonstrates how early colonizers can facilitate the establishment of later ones, by modifying resources in ways that promote the location of and survival in habitat patches. This research draws attention to the diversity of interactions that can occur within ephemeral communities and emphasizes the role that positive interactions may play. Processing chain interactions may be a generally important mechanism increasing the diversity of local communities, including very ephemeral ones.
群落生态学旨在了解物种相互作用如何塑造物种多样性和丰度。虽然与捕食或竞争相互作用相比，促进性相互作用在与短暂微生境相关的群落中研究较少，但在这些生境中，成功的繁殖需要物种在短暂的栖息地适宜期内快速殖民、发育和扩散。生物之间的相互作用，包括加工链相互作用，即最初的消费者以改善资源质量的方式改变资源，从而使后续消费者受益，这些相互作用可以促进这些过程。红眼树蛙（Agalychnis callidryas）的陆地卵块是捕食性胡蜂（Agelaia spp.，Polybia rejecta）的资源，也是腐生性和致病性真菌以及腐生性蝇类（Megaselia spp.，Psychoda savaiiensis）的微生境和资源。我们研究了与胡蜂的相互作用如何促进蝇类和真菌在蛙卵块上的定植和生存。我们的结果表明，胡蜂促进了真菌的定植，而蝇类似乎没有，并且胡蜂和真菌都会产生吸引腐生性蝇类产卵的蛙卵腐肉，从而增加蝇类幼虫的存活率。虽然定植顺序的研究通常集中在早期殖民者对随后到达者的抑制作用上，但本研究表明，早期殖民者如何通过改变资源，以促进栖息地斑块的定位和生存，从而促进后来者的建立，从而促进后来者的建立。这项研究引起了人们对短暂群落中可能发生的各种相互作用的关注，并强调了积极相互作用可能发挥的作用。加工链相互作用可能是一个普遍重要的机制，可以增加当地社区的多样性，包括非常短暂的社区。
