The mistletoe Struthanthus flexicaulis reduces dominance and increases diversity of plants in campo rupestre

Monteiro, Graziella França; Novais, Samuel; Barbosa, Milton; Antonini, Yasmine; Passos, Marcela Fortes de Oliveira; Fernandes, Geraldo Wilson

doi:10.1016/j.flora.2020.151690

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 54 publications

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“…In fact, mistletoe outbreaks have contributed to major forest dieback in temperate forests (Bell et al., 2020; Griebel et al., 2017; Szmidla et al., 2019). Yet, understanding how mistletoes affect host population dynamics is still incipient in the tropics compared with temperate regions (Maponga et al., 2021; Monteiro et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From leaves to the whole tree: Mistletoe effects on the productivity, water relations, and demography of a Neotropical savanna tree

Silva,

Teodoro,

Junior

et al. 2023

Austral Ecology

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Trees' responses to mistletoes occur at multiple organization levels (e.g., leaf, individual, population), yet integrating these multi‐scale responses is still challenging. Here, we compared the traits of infected versus uninfected trees over multiple scales, from leaf anatomy and physiology to canopy allometries and individual growth rate and survivorship. We tested the hypotheses that mistletoes lead in the host (1) the production of leaves with a conservative resource‐use strategy, (2) more mechanically stable canopies and (3) reductions in growth and survival probability in the trees they infect. We addressed these hypotheses in the widespread savanna tree Vochysia thyrsoidea and xylem‐tapping mistletoe Psittacanthus robustus in the Brazilian Cerrado, a global biodiversity hotspot. We found that (1) mistletoe infection did not affect key traits associated with resource conservativeness, such as leaf mass per area (LMA) and carbon assimilation rates (A). Likewise, (2) hosts did not increase the mechanical safety of their trunks in response to mistletoe infection since infected and uninfected trees had a similar allometric scaling between height and crown volume against stem diameter. (3) At the population level, both the relative growth rate and survival probability decreased as the number of parasites increased. However, zero growth and a 50% chance of mortality were estimated to occur in a minority of heavily infected trees (>7 and 14 parasites, respectively). Our results challenge the idea that mistletoes have a ubiquitous negative impact on their hosts. We highlight, therefore, the need for clarifying the mechanisms that allow trees to maintain their functioning even in the face of mistletoe parasitism.

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