Temporal distribution in a tri-trophic system associated with Piper amalago L. in a tropical seasonal forest

Cosmo, Leandro G.; Nascimento, Ana Cláudia; Cogni, Rodrigo; Freitas, André Victor Lucci

doi:10.1007/s11829-019-09687-y

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This also reinforces the idea that the vegetation composition and other biotic factors (e.g. presence of natural enemies) might play a key role in the temporal distribution of fruit-feeding butterflies, a pattern previously demonstrated for other lepidopterans (Braga and Diniz 2018;Cosmo et al 2019). Moreover, it is possible that rainfall is not an important driver of plant phenology in the Baixada Maranhense, so that the fruiting peaks of most angiosperm species are not synchronous with the rain cycle.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…In the Baixada Maranhense, the abundance peak at the beginning of the dry season might be associated with the resources available during the previous rainy season, which may have led to a late development of larvae and to an increase in the number of adults. Alternatively, some authors have suggested that escape from natural enemies (a top-down force) is a crucial factor driving temporal dynamics in insects (Cosmo et al 2019). However, the lack of studies regarding the temporal distribution of higher-trophic-level species (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The temporal distribution of species may reflect several abiotic and biotic factors, such as rainfall, temperature and trophic interactions (bottom-up and top-down forces) (Silva et al 2011;Freire Júnior and Diniz 2015;Cosmo et al 2019). Although seasonality has been recorded for fruit-feeding butterfly assemblages from other sites in Brazil (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal distribution of fruit-feeding butterflies (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the eastern extreme of the Amazon region

et al. 2020

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Rainfall is one of the most influential factors driving insect seasonality in the Amazon region. However, few studies have analyzed the temporal dynamics of fruit-feeding butterflies in the Brazilian Amazon, specially in its eastern portion. Here, we evaluated the diversity patterns and temporal distribution of fruit-feeding butterflies in a remnant of eastern Amazon forest in the Baixada Maranhense, northeastern Brazil. Specifically, we tested whether fruit-feeding butterflies are temporally structured and whether rainfall influences species richness and abundance. Butterflies were collected with baited traps in both the rainy and dry seasons for two consecutive years. In total, we captured 493 butterflies belonging to 28 species, 15 genera and eight tribes. Three species comprised about half of the overall abundance, and Satyrinae was the most representative subfamily. The fruit-feeding butterfly assemblage showed a strong temporal structure during the second year of sampling, but not during the first year. Species composition and richness did not differ between rainy and dry seasons, and neither abundance nor richness was influenced by rainfall. Our results indicate that seasonality is not a strong environmental filter in this region, and that other biotic and abiotic factors are probably driving the community structure. The predominance of palms in the Baixada Maranhense, which are used as host plants by larvae of several lepidopteran species (specially satyrines) and are available year-round, might have contributed to the observed patterns of temporal diversity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal distribution of fruit-feeding butterflies (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the eastern extreme of the Amazon region

et al. 2020

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“…Based on previous work with Piper insect–plant interactions, we hypothesized the following causal relationships: (a) individual plant height affects individual plant PD, which, in turn, drives caterpillar biodiversity and herbivory; (b) within‐plant strata (from low to high) affect within‐plant PD which also drives caterpillar biodiversity and herbivory; (c) herbivory is affected by caterpillar species diversity; (d) caterpillar abundance affects species richness and both drive species diversity; (e) structural and compositional dimensions of PD are correlated, both within and among plants (in SEMs this can be specified as correlated errors); and (f) individual plant height and within‐plant strata also directly affect caterpillar biodiversity and herbivory. Because caterpillar biodiversity and herbivory in P. amalago is known to vary seasonally and with host‐plant leaf numbers (Cosmo et al., 2019), we additionally included season (dry and rainy) and the total number of leaves on the plant as fixed effects for all response variables. Furthermore, plant ID was included as a random effect in all models.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the leaf to the community: Distinct dimensions of phytochemical diversity shape insect–plant interactions within and among individual plants

et al. 2021

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Plant secondary chemistry is known to be an important driver of plant–insect community structure across ecological scales. Recently, the concept of phytochemical diversity (PD) has been introduced to help describe variation in plant secondary chemistry and explain how this variation affects community structure. Previous studies show that PD among individuals and species results in phytochemical mosaics, known as the phytochemical landscape. However, plant traits can vary at finer scales, such as within individuals, and even a single host plant may be perceived as an entire phytochemical landscape by an interacting insect. Using the neotropical shrub Piper amalago, we tested and compared how herbivory, caterpillar biodiversity and plant–herbivore network structure are affected by the compositional (number and concentration of compounds) and structural (diversity of distinct chemical structures) dimensions of PD. We analysed variation among individual plants and among‐plant height strata within individual plants. This allowed us to decompose PD within and among plant individuals and analyse how variation at both scales affects the plant–herbivore network. We found that both within and among plants greater structural diversity decreased herbivore feeding damage. Furthermore, each dimension of PD has different effects on herbivore biodiversity and network structure depending on the scale of biological organization. Within plants, the compositional dimension, specifically low concentrations of compounds tentatively identified as Piper amides, increased herbivore biodiversity. This dimension also increased the capacity of strata within plants to mediate ecological cascades through direct and indirect effects on herbivore abundance in the plant–herbivore network. In contrast, a greater structural diversity among plants decreased herbivore biodiversity and the capacity of plants to affect all other herbivores and plants directly and indirectly in the network. Synthesis. Based on our results we expand the concept of the phytochemical landscape to multiple scales of biological organization and provide evidence that PD may be maintained by how its multiple dimensions have distinct roles across scales of biological organization.

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“…There are more than 1300 species of Piper in the Neotropics (Quijano-Abril et al, 2006), and there is a wealth of natural history of these plants yet to be discovered. Existing natural history studies on a handful of Piper species indicate that the genus shows a great phytochemical diversity (Dyer & Palmer, 2004) and supports complex communities of arthropods (Marquis, 1991;Tepe et al, 2014;Vanin et al, 2008), including hundreds of species of caterpillars mostly in the families Geometridae, Erebidae, Hesperiidae, and Nymphalidae (Beccaloni et al, 2008;Dyer & Gentry, 2019;Janzen & Hallwachs, 2012), which are parasitized principally by flies in the family Tachinidae and wasps in the families Braconidae, Ichneumonidae, and Eulophidae (Arias-Penna et al, 2019;Cosmo et al, 2019;Glassmire et al, 2016;Whitfield et al, 2009). There is also substantive geographic and seasonal variation in ecological communities associated with Piper (Connahs et al, 2009(Connahs et al, , 2011Cosmo et al, 2019;Glassmire et al, 2016).…”

Section: Study Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of interaction rewiring in determining spatial and temporal turnover of tritrophic (Piper‐caterpillar‐parasitoid) metanetworks in the Yucatán Península, México

Campos-Moreno¹,

Dyer

Salcido

et al. 2021

Biotropica

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Natural history studies documenting spatial and temporal variation of species assemblages and their interactions are critical for understanding biodiversity and community ecology. We characterized caterpillar-parasitoid assemblages on shrubs in the genus Piper across remnants of semi-evergreen forest in the Yucatán Península during the rainy and rainy-dry seasons. We collected caterpillars feeding on Piper leaves and reared them to adults or parasitoids to: (i) describe tritrophic interactions between Piper, caterpillars, and parasitoids, (ii) compare empirical metanetworks among sites and seasons, and (iii) investigate patterns in species and interaction turnover across spatial and temporal scales to understand the contribution of species composition and interaction rewiring to overall interaction turnover. We found six Piper species supporting 79 species of caterpillars, which in turn hosted 20 species of parasitoids.In total, there were 116 realized trophic interactions. Species and interactions exhibited substantial turnover at temporal and spatial scales. Total interaction turnover was more pronounced across seasons in all sites (>93%), than it was between sites (<91%). We also found that interaction rewiring contributed more to overall interaction turnover than species turnover. The spatial and temporal variation in metanetworks documented here contribute to understanding fine-scale temporal and spatial turnover in tropical species and interactions and raise important questions about the lability of consumer specialization and the short-term effects of interaction rewiring on the stability of biotic communities. Our results highlight the importance of tropical food web studies that are based on natural history using consistent field methods to document bi-and tripartite interactions.

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Temporal distribution in a tri-trophic system associated with Piper amalago L. in a tropical seasonal forest

Cited by 12 publications

References 30 publications

Temporal distribution of fruit-feeding butterflies (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the eastern extreme of the Amazon region

Temporal distribution of fruit-feeding butterflies (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the eastern extreme of the Amazon region

From the leaf to the community: Distinct dimensions of phytochemical diversity shape insect–plant interactions within and among individual plants

Importance of interaction rewiring in determining spatial and temporal turnover of tritrophic (Piper‐caterpillar‐parasitoid) metanetworks in the Yucatán Península, México

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