Vergara-Torres Carmen Agglael, Díaz-Castelazo Cecilia, Toledo-Hernández Víctor Hugo, Flores-Palacios Alejandro
Departamento de Biología, División de Ciencias Biológicas y de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, Ciudad de México 09340, México.
Red de Interacciones Multitróficas, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Carretera antigua a Coatepec No. 351, El Haya, Xalapa, 91073, Veracruz, México.
AoB Plants. 2021 May 7;13(4):plab024. doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plab024. eCollection 2021 Aug.
Ants benefit myrmecophytic plants by two main activities defending them from herbivores and offering nutrients. Ants' territorial defence behaviour also benefits their myrmecophytic plants; in the case of trees, this behaviour includes eliminating structural parasites (epiphytes and lianas). These benefits could also occur with myrmecophytic epiphytes by decreasing the abundance of competing epiphytes. In two subunits of a tropical dry forest in the centre of Mexico, we (i) recorded the diversity of ants associated with the myrmecophyte , and experimentally tested: (ii) the effect of the ants associated with the myrmecophyte in the removal of its seeds and the seeds of other sympatric non-myrmecophyte species of ; and (iii) if seed remotion by ants corresponds with epiphyte load in the preferred () and limiting phorophyte species (. , and ). In five trees per species, we tied seed batches of , . , . and . . One seed batch was close, and the other far away from a . with active ants. Between forest subunits, ant richness was similar, but diversity and evenness differed. Ants diminish seed establishment of all the species; this effect is stronger in the forest subunit with a large ant diversity, maybe because of ant competition. Seed remotion by ants is independent of phorophyte species identity. Although ants can provide benefits to . , they also could be lowering their abundance.
保护它们免受食草动物侵害并提供养分。蚂蚁的领地防御行为也使其蚁栖植物受益；就树木而言，这种行为包括清除结构性寄生物（附生植物和藤本植物）。通过减少竞争性附生植物的数量，这些益处也可能出现在蚁栖附生植物身上。在墨西哥中部一片热带干燥森林的两个亚区域，我们（i）记录了与蚁栖植物相关的蚂蚁多样性，并进行了实验测试：（ii）与蚁栖植物相关的蚂蚁对其种子以及同域分布的其他非蚁栖植物种子清除的影响；以及（iii）蚂蚁对种子的清除是否与首选（、和）和限制附生植物载体树种（、和）上的附生植物负载相对应。对于每个树种的五棵树，我们系上了、、和的种子批次。一批种子靠近且另一批远离有活跃蚂蚁的。在森林亚区域之间，蚂蚁的丰富度相似，但多样性和均匀度有所不同。蚂蚁减少了所有物种的种子定植；在蚂蚁多样性较高的森林亚区域，这种影响更强，可能是由于蚂蚁之间的竞争。蚂蚁对种子的清除与附生植物载体树种的身份无关。尽管蚂蚁可以为带来益处，但它们也可能会降低其数量。
