Pollinator Limitation of Fig Tree Reproduction on the Island of Anak Krakatau (Indonesia)

Compton, Stephen G.; Ross, S. J.; Thornton, I. W. B.

doi:10.2307/2388807

Cited by 63 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Our data show that the increase in non-pollinator wasps in the highly fragmented forest only results in a decrease in the number of pollinator wasp and the impact on viable seeds is not obvious, which indicates that the negative effect of non-pollinator wasps on pollinator wasps can further exacerbate the obligate interaction between figs and their pollinator wasps. Many previous studies have shown that seasonality and other environmental changes result in a shortage of the pollinator supply to receptive trees (Bronstein 1989(Bronstein , 1991Compton 1994;Anstett et al 1996;Bronstein and McKey 1996). Our data indicate that the negative effect of non-pollinator wasps on pollinator wasps can also result in a shortage of the pollinator population and, thereby, affect the obligate interaction between figs and their pollinator wasps.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Fragmentation Effects on Diversity of Wasp Community and Its Impact on Fig/Fig Wasp Interaction in Ficus racemosa L.

Wang

Yang

Zhao

et al. 2005

Journal of Integrative Plant Biology

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Abstract:Habitat fragmentation usually results in alteration of species composition or biological communities. However, little is known about the effect of habitat fragmentation on the fig/fig wasp system. In this study, we compared the structure of a fig wasp community and the interaction between figs and fig wasps of Ficus racemosa L. in a primary forest, a locally fragmented forest and a highly fragmented forest. Our results show that, in the highly fragmented forest, the proportion of pollinator wasps is lower and the proportion of non-pollinator wasps is higher compared with the primary forest and locally fragmented forest. The proportion of fruits without pollinator wasps in mature fruits is also greatly increased in the highly fragmented forest. The proportion of galls in all female flowers increases in the highly fragmented forest, whereas the proportion of viable seeds does not change considerably. The disruption of groups of fig trees results in a decrease in pollinator wasps and even might result in the extinction of pollinator wasps in some extreme cases, which may transform the reciprocal interaction between figs and fig wasps into a parasite/host system. Such an effect may lead to the local extinction of this keystone plant resource of rain forests in the process of evolution, and thereby, may change the structure and function of the tropical rain forest.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Fragmentation Effects on Diversity of Wasp Community and Its Impact on Fig/Fig Wasp Interaction in Ficus racemosa L.

Wang

Yang

Zhao

et al. 2005

Journal of Integrative Plant Biology

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“…Many previous works showed that the seasonality and other environmental change result in the shortage in the pollinator supply to the receptive trees (Bronstein, 1991;Compton, 1994;Anstett et aI., 1996;Bronstein and McKey, 1996). Our study might suggest that the fragmentation and the negative effect of the non-pollinators might also result in the shortage in the pollinator supply to the receptive trees in the dry season.…”

Section: Sample Pollinatorsmentioning

confidence: 49%

Seasonal change in the structure of fig-wasp community and its implication for conservation

Wang

Sun

2009

Symbiosis

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Figs (Moraceae) and their pollinating wasps (Agaonidae) constitute a famous reciprocal mutualism in which figs provide some female flowers for the development of fig wasp offspring while the fig wasps pollinate fig flowers. However, figs also host many non-pollinating wasps which are either parasitoids or resource competitors of pollinators, and bring no benefit for figs and are detrimental to fig' fitness. Our data on Ficus racemosa in Xishuangbanna showed that the numbers of non-pollinators and the mature syconia without pollinator wasps increase in rainy season, especially in the highly fragmented forest. This might be because of the longer developing time of the syconia and thereby longer oviposition time to non-pollinators in the dry season. The galled flower and the viable seed percentages in dry seasons are also larger than in rainy seasons in both primary forest and fragmented forest, and the development of non-pollinators is mainly at the expense of pollinator wasps. Our results showed that there exists a discriminative seasonal impact of non-pollinators and fragmentation effects on population size of fig's pollinators. This implies that fig/fig wasp mutualism is more fragile in dry season, and that the critical population size and breeding units of figs in seasonal area might be larger than previously estimated without considering the seasonal change of pollinator population.

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“…Fig wasps are small, delicate, weakflying, and short-lived insects (17) that use the wind to carry them between fig trees in open woodland (18) or in rainforests, where many species are transported by the fast-flowing air found above the general canopy (19,20). Fig trees and their wasps are also effective colonizers of islands, and low levels of genetic differentiation at microsatellite loci between mainland and island populations suggest gene flow can occur over distances of tens of kilometers (15,21). Nason et al (14) were the first to use molecular approaches to detect long-distance dispersal of fig wasps.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind-borne insects mediate directional pollen transfer between desert fig trees 160 kilometers apart

Ahmed

Compton

Butlin

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

186

207

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Pollinator Limitation of Fig Tree Reproduction on the Island of Anak Krakatau (Indonesia)

Cited by 63 publications

References 18 publications

Fragmentation Effects on Diversity of Wasp Community and Its Impact on Fig/Fig Wasp Interaction in Ficus racemosa L.

Fragmentation Effects on Diversity of Wasp Community and Its Impact on Fig/Fig Wasp Interaction in Ficus racemosa L.

Seasonal change in the structure of fig-wasp community and its implication for conservation

Wind-borne insects mediate directional pollen transfer between desert fig trees 160 kilometers apart

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