Dataset Information

Spatial patterning and floral synchrony among trillium populations with contrasting histories of herbivory.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the spatial patterning and floral synchrony within and among populations of a non-clonal, forest understory herb, Trillium catesbaei. Two populations of T. catesbaei within Great Smoky Mountains National Park were monitored for five years: Cades Cove (high deer abundance) and Whiteoak Sink (low deer abundance). All individuals within each population were mapped during year one and five. Only flowering and single-leaf juveniles were mapped during intervening years. Greater distances between flowering plants (plants currently in flower) and substantially lower population densities and smaller patch sizes were observed at Cades Cove versus Whiteoak Sink. However, with the exception of flowering plants, contrasting histories of herbivory did not appear to fundamentally alter the spatial patterning of the T. catesbaei population at Cades Cove, an area with a long and well-documented history of deer overabundance. Regardless of browse history, non-flowering life stages were significantly clustered at all spatial scales examined. Flowering plants were clustered in all years at Whiteoak Sink, but more often randomly distributed at Cades Cove, possibly as a result of their lower abundance. Between years, however, there was a positive spatial association between the locations of flowering plants at both sites. Flowering rate was synchronous between sites, but lagged a year behind favorable spring growing conditions, which likely allowed plants to allocate photosynthate from a favorable year towards flowering the subsequent year. Collectively, our results suggest that chronically high levels of herbivory may be associated with spatial patterning of flowering within populations of a non-clonal plant. They also highlight the persistence of underlying spatial patterns, as evidenced by high levels of spatial clustering among non-flowering individuals, and the pervasive, although muted in a population subjected to chronic herbivory, influence of precipitation and temperature on flowering in long-lived forest herbs.

SUBMITTER: Webster CR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4338797 | biostudies-other | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Spatial patterning and floral synchrony among trillium populations with contrasting histories of herbivory.

Webster Christopher R CR Jenkins Michael A MA Poznanovic Aaron J AJ

PeerJ 20150219

We investigated the spatial patterning and floral synchrony within and among populations of a non-clonal, forest understory herb, Trillium catesbaei. Two populations of T. catesbaei within Great Smoky Mountains National Park were monitored for five years: Cades Cove (high deer abundance) and Whiteoak Sink (low deer abundance). All individuals within each population were mapped during year one and five. Only flowering and single-leaf juveniles were mapped during intervening years. Greater distanc ...[more]

PMID: 25737821

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Project description:Land-use changes, one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity, can cause underappreciated effects on ecosystems by altering the structures of interspecific interaction networks. These effects have typically been explored by evaluating interaction networks composed of a single type of interaction. Therefore, it remains unclear whether the different types of interaction networks sharing the same species respond to the same land-use changes in a similar manner.To compare the responses of herbivory and pollination networks to land-use changes, we investigated both types of interaction networks in seminatural grasslands categorized into three types of agricultural land-use (abandoned, extensively managed, and intensively managed) in a Japanese agricultural landscape. We quantified the structures of the interaction networks using several indices (connectance, evenness, diversity, generality, network specialization, and robustness) and compared them among different land-use types. We conducted piecewise SEM to differentiate the direct and indirect effects of land-use changes on the network structures.Although both land-use changes (abandonment and intensification) led to reduced plant and insect species richness, the structures of herbivory and pollination networks showed different responses to the land-use changes. There was a marked contrast in network generality; while, herbivore species were less generalized (i.e., having fewer host plant species) in fields with land-use intensification, pollinator species were less generalized in abandoned fields.Furthermore, the mechanisms behind the changes in interaction networks were also different between pollination and herbivory networks. The change in herbivory network generality was induced by the decrease in plant species richness, whereas the change in pollination network generality was mainly induced by the effect independent of changes in species richness and composition, which possibly reflect the less number of flowers in shaded environment.The present study demonstrates that agricultural land-use changes affect herbivory and pollination networks in contrasting ways and suggests the importance of assessing multiple types of interaction networks for biodiversity conservation in plant-insect systems. Our results also highlight the underappreciated importance of maintaining habitats with an intermediate intensity of land-use.

Dataset Information

Spatial patterning and floral synchrony among trillium populations with contrasting histories of herbivory.

Publications

Spatial patterning and floral synchrony among trillium populations with contrasting histories of herbivory.

Similar Datasets

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