Consumption of macro-fungi by invertebrates in a Mexican tropical cloud forest: do fruit body characteristics matter?

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 603-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Guevara ◽  
Rodolfo Dirzo
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Forest ◽  
Fruit Body ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Tropical Cloud Forest ◽  
Aggregation Size ◽  
Coloration Patterns ◽  
Plant Herbivore ◽  
Consumer Interactions ◽  
The Tropics

The emphasis of antagonistic fungus–consumer interactions to date has been on temperate taxa and predominantly zoocentric, neglecting the effects on the fungal component. These interactions are expected to be especially complex and diverse in the tropics, where both components display their greatest diversity. Variability in fungivory (apparent biomass consumed) of understorey basidiomycetes in a tropical cloud forest was investigated to test whether this could be explained (at the proximate level) by apparency-related characteristics of the aboveground structures (colour of pileus, stipe and hymenium; size and aggregation), as has been suggested for plant–herbivore relationships. Considerable interspecific variation in fungivory was detected (range 0–50%). Cluster analysis showed that neighbouring clusters had dissimilar levels of fungivory. Such clusters were similar in colour attributes of aboveground structures, but differed in aggregation size and apparent biomass. A quantitative analysis also showed that colour attributes were not strongly associated with the observed variation of consumption levels, whereas apparent biomass and aggregation size did correlate with the observed variation in fungivory. Furthermore, specific identity correlated with fungivory. It was concluded that coloration patterns may not be important for fungivory, whereas genet size and species identity (probably via characteristics unrelated to apparency, such as mycotoxins and nutritional value) seemed to be critical factors.

scholarly journals Just how big is intraspecific trait variation in basidiomycete wood fungal fruit bodies?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha K. Dawson ◽  
Mari Jönsson
Keyword(s):  
Intraspecific Variation ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Fruit Body ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Fungal Ecology ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Trait Variation

AbstractAs the use of functional trait approaches is growing in fungal ecology, there is a corresponding need to understand trait variation. Much of trait theory and statistical techniques are built on the assumption that interspecific variation is larger than intraspecific variation. This allows the use of mean trait values for species, which the vast majority of trait studies adopt. We examined the size of intra- vs. inter-specific variation in two wood fungal fruit body traits: size and density. Both coefficients of variation (CV) and Trait Probability Density analyses were used to quantify trait variation. We found that intraspecific variation in fruit body density was more than twice as variable as interspecific variation, and fruit body size was hugely variable (CVs averaged 190%), although interspecific variation was larger. Further, there was a very high degree of overlap in the trait space of species, indicating that there may be little niche partitioning at the species level. These findings show that intraspecific variation is highly important and should be accounted for when using trait approaches to understand fungal ecology. More data on variation of other fungal traits is also desperately needed to ascertain whether the high level of variation found here is typical for fungi. While the need to measure individuals does reduce the ability to generalise at the species level, it does not negate the usefulness of fungal trait measurements. There are two reasons for this: first, the ecology of most fungal species remains poorly known and trait measurements address this gap; and secondly, if trait overlap between species more generally is as much as we found here, then individual measurements may be more helpful than species identity for untangling fungal community dynamics.

Impact of artificial lights on foraging of insectivorous bats in a Costa Rican cloud forest

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanner M. Frank ◽  
Whitney C. Gabbert ◽  
Johel Chaves-Campos ◽  
Richard K. LaVal
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cloud Forest ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Foraging Mode ◽  
Insectivorous Bats ◽  
Cluttered Environments ◽  
Aerial Insectivore ◽  
Tropical Cloud Forest ◽  
The Tropics

AbstractDetermining the effects of light pollution on tropical bat communities is important for understanding community assembly rules in urban areas. Studies from temperate regions suggest that, among aerial insectivorous bats, fast-flying species that forage in the open are attracted to artificial lights, whereas slow-flying species that forage in cluttered environments avoid those lights. We measured aerial insectivore responses to light pollution in a tropical cloud forest to test this hypothesis. Bat echolocation was recorded at 20 pairs of light and dark sites in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Foraging activity was higher at artificially lighted sites than dark sites near the new moon, especially around blue-white fluorescent lighting. Most recorded bat species showed increased or unchanged activity in response to light, including some slow-flying and edge-foraging bats. This finding suggests that, contrary to the evaluated hypothesis, flight speed and foraging mode are not sufficient to determine bat responses to artificial lights in the tropics. Two bat species showed decreased activity at light sites, and a low species evenness was recorded around lights, particularly fluorescent lights, compared with dark sites. As in the temperate zone, light pollution in the tropics seems to concentrate certain bat species around human-inhabited areas, potentially shifting community structure.

Phenology, abundance and consumers of figs (Ficus spp.) in a tropical cloud forest: evaluation of a potential keystone resource

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 401-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo H. Kattan ◽  
Leonor A. Valenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Forest ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Fruit Availability ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Tropical Cloud Forest ◽  
Fig Tree ◽  
Fig Trees ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Keystone Resource

Abstract:Fig trees (Ficus spp) produce fruit year-round and figs are consumed by a large proportion of frugivores throughout the tropics. Figs are potential keystone resources that sustain frugivore communities during periods of scarcity, but studies have produced contradictory results. Over 1 y we monitored the phenology of 206 trees of five Ficus species in a Colombian cloud forest, to test whether figs produced fruit during periods of low overall fruit availability. We also measured fig tree densities in 18 0.5-ha plots and made 190 h of observations at 24 trees of three species to determine whether figs were abundant and consumed by a large proportion of the local frugivores. The five species produced fruit year-round but fig availability varied monthly by orders of magnitude. Fig trees reached comparatively high densities of 1–5 trees ha−1 and were consumed by 36 bird species (60% of the local frugivore assemblage) and three mammal species. However, there was no season of fruit scarcity and figs represented on average 1.5% of the monthly fruit biomass. Figs in this Andean forest are part of a broad array of fruiting species and at least during our study did not seem to constitute a keystone resource.

scholarly journals Effects of moisture dynamics on bryophyte carbon fluxes in a tropical cloud forest

2019 ◽  
Vol 222 (4) ◽  
pp. 1766-1777
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Metcalfe ◽  
Jenny C. M. Ahlstrand
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Forest ◽  
Carbon Fluxes ◽  
Tropical Cloud Forest ◽  
Moisture Dynamics

scholarly journals Spatial Ecology of the Fungal GenusXylariain a Tropical Cloud Forest

Biotropica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Thomas ◽  
Roo Vandegrift ◽  
Ashley Ludden ◽  
George C. Carroll ◽  
Bitty A. Roy
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Cloud Forest ◽  
Tropical Cloud Forest

Beetle pollination and fruit predation of Xanthosoma daguense (Araceae) in an Andean cloud forest in Colombia

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos García-Robledo ◽  
Gustavo Kattan ◽  
Carolina Murcia ◽  
Paulina Quintero-Marín
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Fruit Set ◽  
Cloud Forest ◽  
Female Reproductive Success ◽  
Hand Pollination ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Tropical Cloud Forest ◽  
Nitidulid Beetles ◽  
Pollination Systems

This study describes a pollination system in a species of Araceae that involves three species of beetle, one of which is also a fruit predator. In a tropical cloud forest in Colombia, inflorescences of Xanthosoma daguense opened at dusk, releasing a sweet scent and raising their temperature 1–3 °C. Soon after, two species of Scarabaeidae (Dynastinae; Cyclocephala gregaria and C. amblyopsis) and one species of Nitidulidae (Macrostola costulata) arrived with pollen. Cyclocephala beetles remained inside the inflorescence for 24 h. The next night, Cyclocephala beetles left the inflorescence after picking up the freshly shed pollen, almost always moving to the nearest inflorescence available. The probability of inflorescence abortion and number of fruits set after the visit of one individual was equivalent for both Cyclocephala species. However, C. gregaria was much more abundant than C. amblyopsis, so it was the most important pollinator. There was a positive relationship between the number of dynastine visits and the number of fruits produced. Besides carrying pollen to the inflorescences, nitidulid beetles had a negative effect on female reproductive success through fruit predation. Nitidulid larvae developed inside the infructescence and preyed on up to 64% of the fruits. However, 8% of inflorescences not visited by dynastines were probably pollinated by nitidulids, because hand-pollination experiments showed that self-pollination was unlikely. Inflorescences potentially pollinated by nitidulids comprised 25% of the fruit crop in the year of our study. This interaction with a fruit predator that is also a potential pollinator resembles brood-site pollination systems in which pollinators prey on part of the fruit set (e.g. Ficus, senita cacti, Yucca), making this system substantially more complex than previously described dynastine-pollinated systems in aroids.

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