Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Contrasting effects of an invasive ant on a native and an invasive plant
Biological Invasions, Volume 12, No. 9, Year 2010
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
When invasive species establish in new environments, they may disrupt existing or create new interactions with resident species. Understanding of the functioning of invaded ecosystems will benefit from careful investigation of resulting species-level interactions. We manipulated ant visitation to compare how invasive ant mutualisms affect two common plants, one native and one invasive, on a sub-tropical Indian Ocean island. Technomyrmex albipes, an introduced species, was the most common and abundant ant visitor to the plants. T. albipes were attracted to extrafloral nectaries on the invasive tree (Leucaena leucocephala) and deterred the plant's primary herbivore, the Leucaena psyllid (Heteropsylla cubana). Ant exclusion from L. leucocephala resulted in decreased plant growth and seed production by 22% and 35%, respectively. In contrast, on the native shrub (Scaevola taccada), T. albipes frequently tended sap-sucking hemipterans, and ant exclusion resulted in 30% and 23% increases in growth and fruit production, respectively. Stable isotope analysis confirmed the more predacious and herbivorous diets of T. albipes on the invasive and native plants, respectively. Thus the ants' interactions protect the invasive plant from its main herbivore while also exacerbating the effects of herbivores on the native plant. Ultimately, the negative effects on the native plant and positive effects on the invasive plant may work in concert to facilitate invasion by the invasive plant. Our findings underscore the importance of investigating facilitative interactions in a community context and the multiple and diverse interactions shaping novel ecosystems. © 2010 The Author(s).
Authors & Co-Authors
Lach, Lori J.
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
Mauritius, Vacoas
Mauritian Wildlife Foundation
Australia, Perth
The University of Western Australia
Tillberg, Chadwick V.
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
United States, Mcminnville
Linfield College
Suarez, Andrew V.
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
Statistics
Citations: 40
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1007/s10530-010-9703-1
ISSN:
13873547