Temporal variation in the influence of forest succession on caterpillar communities: A long‐term study in a tropical dry forest

Boege, Karina; Villa‐Galaviz, Edith; López-Carretero, Antonio; Pérez‐Ishiwara, Rubén; Zaldívar‐Riverón, Alejandro; Ibarra, Adolfo; del‐Val, Ek

doi:10.1111/btp.12666

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Because sampling bias is an important concern in the majority of ecological studies (34), we tested whether our results would be a↵ected by the sampling e↵ort in reporting species, by an incomplete plant VOC profile, and by sampling the interaction network in a di↵erent year or place. We found that all our results were qualitatively equivalent when using sub-samples from the whole dataset (illustrating the scalability of our findings), changing the VOC profile from 31 to 52 by including potential undefined biogenic VOCs, and using information of plant-herbivore interaction networks from previous years (from 2007-2017) (35). Ref.…”

supporting

confidence: 57%

Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities

Boege

del‐Val

et al. 2020

Science

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Plants emit an extraordinary diversity of chemicals that provide information about their identity and mediate their interactions with insects. However, most studies of this have focused on a few model species in controlled environments, limiting our capacity to understand plant-insect chemical communication in ecological communities. Here, by integrating information theory with ecological and evolutionary theories, we show that a stable information structure of plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can emerge from a conflicting information process between plants and herbivores. We corroborate this information “arms race” theory with field data recording plant-VOC associations and plant-herbivore interactions in a tropical dry forest. We reveal that plant VOC redundancy and herbivore specialization can be explained by a conflicting information transfer. Information-based communication approaches can increase our understanding of species interactions across trophic levels.

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supporting

confidence: 57%

Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities

Boege

del‐Val

et al. 2020

Science

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“…However, we must acknowledge the limitations of the temporal scale of our data, with a dataset of only two years. Studies assessing the impact of different stages of succession conducted over longer temporal periods would give a more precise picture of the impact of community dynamics of ant communities (e.g., Rozendaal et al, 2019, for plants, and Novais et al., 2018, and Boege et al., 2019, for other insects).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among tropical forests, dry forests are highly threatened ecosystems, with a constant increase in forest gaps due to anthropogenic activities in the last decades, and the majority of such habitats consist of a mosaic of forests in different stages of vegetation succession (Quesada et al., 2009). Importantly, forest succession drives changes in the insect community structure in different ecosystems (Boege et al., 2019; Bongers et al, 2004; Jeffries et al., 2006). In particular, variation in ant communities across forest succession has been associated with changes in forest complexity and heterogeneity of micro‐environmental conditions (Klimes et al., 2012; Marques et al., 2017) but can result in unpredictable patterns in the canopy (Antoniazzi et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the ant community in a dry forest differ by vertical strata but not by successional stage

et al. 2021

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Ants are diverse and ecologically important organisms in tropical forests, where their spatiotemporal distribution can be highly complex. This complexity arises mainly from marked differences in microclimatic conditions and resource availability through space and time that is even more evident in highly seasonal environments, such as tropical dry forests. However, it is unclear how seasonality interacts with other factors that might shape temporal variation of ant composition (β-diversity), like vertical strata and habitat disturbance. Our goal was to examine the potential influence of vertical stratification and the successional stage on the spatiotemporal variation of a tropical dry forest's ant species composition. We assessed whether species turnover or nestedness was the main component determining the spatiotemporal β-diversity of ant communities across the canopy and litter strata. We sampled canopy and litter ants in ten plots, half in the early and half on the late stage of secondary succession at four times, twice in wet and twice in dry season. A high species turnover defined the spatiotemporal β-diversity of canopy and litter ant communities across years and seasons in our focal dry forests. Importantly, the temporal ant species composition was much more stable in the canopy than in the litter. Moreover, we found that the ant community's temporal dynamics was consistently high across successional stages, not differing in the temporal β-diversity between early and late succession. Our results provide valuable insights into the potential underlying causes of community assembly and spatiotemporal dynamics in seasonal habitats, like the highly threatened and diverse tropical dry forests.

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“…Specimens of Lepidoptera were deposited in the Lepidoptera collection (ECO‐CH‐L) and Hymenoptera and Diptera in the Arthropod Collection (ECO‐CH‐AR), both collections of the Zoological Museum at ECOSUR. To assist in species delineation and identification of morphospecies, morphology‐based taxonomy and DNA sequences were both used following Boege et al (2019). We used CO1 sequences (Hebert et al, 2003) for comparisons with libraries available in the Barcode of Life Data (BOLD) system following Ratnasingham and Hebert (2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All Piper species were identified by EJT, and determinations of individuals from the plots were verified against the collections in the Herbarium at ECOSUR (CIQR). Caterpillars were photographed in the field or laboratory, and larvae and adults were identified to genus or species by CP and LD, and using online resources (Janzen & Hallwachs, 2012; Boege et al (2019). We used CO1 sequences (Hebert et al, 2003) for comparisons with libraries available in the Barcode of Life Data (BOLD) system following Ratnasingham and Hebert (2013).…”

Section: Sampling Piper-caterpillar-parasitoid Interactionsmentioning

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 variation in the influence of forest succession on caterpillar communities: A long‐term study in a tropical dry forest

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities

Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the ant community in a dry forest differ by vertical strata but not by successional stage

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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