Interactions of biotic and abiotic environmental factors in an ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, and the potential for selection mosaics

Piculell, Bridget J.; Hoeksema, Jason D.; Thompson, John N.

doi:10.1186/1741-7007-6-23

Cited by 78 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Style length or other structural traits of the female flowers, temperature, habitat sites, non-pollinators' interference and abundance of foundresses can directly affect the production of viable seeds and wasp offspring. Local variation in these factors can obviously affect the relationship between viable seed and wasp offspring production, so the fig and fig wasp interaction is conditional, as previously argued [4,44,61]. Essentially, the sign of the correlation between wasp offspring and viable seed production depends on the availability of female flowers in the absence of other confounding factors [41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…On the other hand, preventing entry of additional foundresses by closing the ostioles can prevent over-exploitation of female flowers at the expense of the viable seeds. This can preclude the breakdown of cooperation between figs and fig wasps [44,49]. A controlled experiment shows that figs close their ostiole rapidly if many foundresses enter a syconium but keep it open when foundress numbers are low [29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial heterogeneity and host repression in fig-fig wasp mutualism

Wang

Wen

Chen

et al. 2015

Sci. China Life Sci.

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It is generally believed that physical heterogeneity in common resource or evolutionary restraint can sufficiently prevent direct conflict between host and symbionts in mutualism systems. Our data on fig/fig wasp reciprocal mutualism (Ficus racemosa), however, show that structural barriers of female flowers or genetic constraints of pollinators previously hypothesized exist, but cannot sufficiently maintain the mutualism stability. The results show that a positive relationship between seed and wasp production could be maintained in warm season, which might be because of density dependence restraint among foundresses and their low oviposition and pollination efficiency, keeping common resource (female flowers) utilization unsaturated. Whilst, a negative correlation between wasp offspring and viable seed production was also observed in cold season, which might be that the increased oviposition and pollination efficiency maximized the common resource utilization. The fitness trade-off between fig and pollinator wasps is greatly affected by environmental or ecological variations. The local stability might result from temporal low exploitation efficiency of pollinators together with interference competition among pollinators. We suggest that host repression through the active regulation of bract closure, which can create interference competition among the foundresses and prevent extra more foundresses sequential entry in fruit cavities, would help the figs avoiding the cost of over-exploitation. This essentially takes the same role as sanctioning of cheating or competitive behaviors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial heterogeneity and host repression in fig-fig wasp mutualism

Wang

Wen

Chen

et al. 2015

Sci. China Life Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This section now reads: "In addition to the inter-and intraspecific variability of the plants (Piculell et al 2008; Karst et al 2009) and fungi (Munkvold et al 2004) addressed here, the differences in host responses may be attributable environmental conditions and modulated by shade, drought, salinity and nutrient depletion (Johnson et al 1997; Kageyama et al 2008; Rodriguez et al 2008;Hoeksema et al 2010). "…”

Section: Found That Dse Inoculation Tended To Increase Host Biomass mentioning

confidence: 97%

Septate endophyte colonization and host responses of grasses and forbs native to a tallgrass prairie

2011

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“…Multiple studies have documented changes in the symbiosis between environments, fungal species, and even genotypes of the same species (Beckford et al 1985;Burgess et al 1994;Kennedy and Peay 2007;Nara 2006;Piculell et al 2008;Zhou and Sharik 1997). However, true exploitation, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Demonstrating environmental conditionality led to its recognition as a factor promoting species coexistence in diverse assemblages. However, less work has been done on the effects of environmental context on mutualisms (Bronstein 1994;Piculell et al 2008;Setala et al 1997). This is a major oversight given the recent recognition that mutualistic interactions may be as important as competitive ones in determining community structure and function (Stachowicz 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the ecological stability of ectomycorrhizal symbiosis: effects of heat, ash and mycorrhizal colonization on Pinus muricata seedling performance

2009

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Understanding how abiotic conditions mediate the outcome of biotic interactions is a key question in community ecology. This is particularly interesting in the case of mutualisms because changing environmental conditions may be a source of evolutionary or ecological instability in the relationship between symbiotic partners. For the mycorrhizal symbiosis, elevated nutrient levels may make the carbon cost to plants of supporting mycorrhizal fungi outweigh the benefits of mycorrhizal nutrient acquisition. In this study, we simulated the effects of post-fire nutrient enrichment on the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis between Rhizopogon occidentalis and Pinus muricata by using factorial combinations of soil heating, ash addition and mycorrhizal colonization. In general, the presence of R. occidentalis and the heat and ash treatments increased growth of P. muricata seedlings. However, significant interactions between the treatments indicated that there were contextdependent effects on seedling growth. Soil heating increased soil mineral nitrogen content, but did not decrease the benefit of mycorrhizal colonization relative to unheated controls. This appeared to be driven by a decrease in the proportion of the root system occupied by R. occidentalis, indicating that host-plants can optimize colonization in a way that maximizes growth. Because seedlings in heat-treated soils were larger than unheated controls, reduced percent colonization did not cause any decrease in fungal biomass in heat-treated soils. Since there was no decrease in the performance of either partner, our results show that, in this system, ectomycorrhizal mutualisms are likely robust within the natural degree of environmental variability caused by moderate intensity wildfires.

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Interactions of biotic and abiotic environmental factors in an ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, and the potential for selection mosaics

Cited by 78 publications

References 52 publications

Spatial heterogeneity and host repression in fig-fig wasp mutualism

Spatial heterogeneity and host repression in fig-fig wasp mutualism

Septate endophyte colonization and host responses of grasses and forbs native to a tallgrass prairie

Testing the ecological stability of ectomycorrhizal symbiosis: effects of heat, ash and mycorrhizal colonization on Pinus muricata seedling performance

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