A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
A highly resolved food web for insect seed predators in a species-rich tropical forest
Authors: Sofia Gripenberg, Yves Basset, Owen T. Lewis,J. Christopher D. Terry, S. Joseph Wright, Indira Simón, D. Catalina Fernández, Marjorie Cedeño-Sanchez, Marleny Rivera, Héctor Barrios, John W. Brown, Osvaldo Calderón, Anthony I. Cognato, Jorma Kim, Scott E. Miller, Geoffrey E. Morse, Sara Pinzón-Navarro, Donald L. J. Quicke, Robert K. Robbins, Juha-Pekka Salminen, Eero Vesterinen
Publisher: WILEY
Publication year: 2019
Journal: Ecology Letters
Journal acronym: ECOL LETT
Volume: 22
Issue: 10
First page : 1638
Last page: 1649
Number of pages: 12
ISSN: 1461-023X
eISSN: 1461-0248
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13359
Web address : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.13359
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/42116021
The top-down and indirect effects of insects on plant communities depend on patterns of host use, which are often poorly documented, particularly in species-rich tropical forests. At Barro Colorado Island, Panama, we compiled the first food web quantifying trophic interactions between the majority of co-occurring woody plant species and their internally feeding insect seed predators. Our study is based on more than 200 000 fruits representing 478 plant species, associated with 369 insect species. Insect host-specificity was remarkably high: only 20% of seed predator species were associated with more than one plant species, while each tree species experienced seed predation from a median of two insect species. Phylogeny, but not plant traits, explained patterns of seed predator attack. These data suggest that seed predators are unlikely to mediate indirect interactions such as apparent competition between plant species, but are consistent with their proposed contribution to maintaining plant diversity via the Janzen-Connell mechanism.
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