Vergara-Torres Carmen Agglael, Corona-López Angélica Ma, Díaz-Castelazo Cecilia, Toledo-Hernández Víctor Hugo, Flores-Palacios Alejandro
Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación (CIByC), Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Av. Universidad, Col. Chamilpa, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
Red Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, A. C. Carretera Antigua a Coatepec, El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz, México.
AoB Plants. 2018 Sep 25;10(5):ply056. doi: 10.1093/aobpla/ply056. eCollection 2018 Oct.
Seed depredation is recognized as a determining factor in plant community structure and composition. Ants are primary consumers of seeds influencing abundance of epiphytes on trees. This study was conducted in two subunits of a tropical dry forest established on different soil substrates in San Andrés de la Cal, Tepoztlán, in Morelos, Mexico, and experimentally tested whether seed removal activity is higher in tree species with smaller epiphyte loads compared to those with greater epiphyte loads. Five trees were selected at random from six species of trees with high (preferred hosts) or low (limiting hosts) epiphyte loads. Seed removal differed among hosts and different soil substrates in the forest. On relating seed removal to the abundance of arboreal ants, the most consistent pattern was that lower seed removal was related to lower ant abundance, while high seed removal was associated with intermediate to high ant abundance. Epiphyte seed removal by ants influences epiphyte abundance and can contribute considerably to a failure to establish, since it diminishes the quantity of seeds available for germination and establishment.
种子捕食被认为是植物群落结构和组成的一个决定性因素。蚂蚁是种子的主要消费者，它们影响着树上附生植物的数量。本研究在墨西哥莫雷洛斯州特波兹特兰市圣安德烈斯德拉卡尔不同土壤基质上建立的热带干燥森林的两个亚单元中进行，并通过实验测试了与附生植物负载量大的树种相比，附生植物负载量小的树种的种子去除活性是否更高。从附生植物负载量高（首选宿主）或低（限制宿主）的六种树种中随机选择五棵树。森林中不同宿主和不同土壤基质的种子去除情况有所不同。在将种子去除与树栖蚂蚁的数量联系起来时，最一致的模式是种子去除率低与蚂蚁数量少相关，而种子去除率高与蚂蚁数量中等至高相关。蚂蚁对附生植物种子的去除会影响附生植物的数量，并可能极大地导致植物无法定植，因为它减少了可用于发芽和定植的种子数量。
