Ecological engineering by a native leaf-cutting ant increases the performance of exotic plant species

Oecologia

Volumn 163, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 163-169

  Farji Brener, Alejandro G ^a   Lescano, Natalia ^a   Ghermandi, Luciana ^a  

^a LABORATORIO ECOTONO   (Argentina)

Author keywords

Acromyrmex lobicornis; Ants; Biological invasions; Ecological engineers; Fluctuating resource hypothesis; Soil disturbance

Indexed keywords

ANT; BIOLOGICAL INVASION; BIOMASS; ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING; ENVIRONMENTAL DISTURBANCE; GREENHOUSE ECOSYSTEM; INVASIVE SPECIES; LEAF; NATIVE SPECIES; NEST; NUTRIENT ENRICHMENT; PRISTINE ENVIRONMENT; RESOURCE AVAILABILITY; SOIL NUTRIENT; SUBSTRATE;

ANIMAL; ANT; ARTICLE; BIOMASS; ECOLOGY; PHYSIOLOGY; PLANT LEAF;

ANIMALS; ANTS; BIOMASS; ECOLOGY; PLANT LEAVES;

ACROMYRMEX LOBICORNIS; ATTA; FORMICIDAE;

EID: 77951021971     PISSN: 00298549     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00442-010-1589-1     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Badano E, Villaroel E, Bustamante R, Marquet P, Caviares L (2007) Ecosystem engineering facilitates invasions by exotic plants in high-Andean ecosystems. J Ecol 95: 682-688.
2. Brooks M (2003) Effects of increased soil nitrogen on the dominance of alien plants in the Mojave Desert. J Appl Ecol 40: 344-353.
3. Burke M, Grime JP (1996) An experimental study of plant community invasibility. Ecology 77: 776-790.
4. Byers J, Cuddington K, Jones C, Talley T, Hastings A, Lambrinos J, Crooks J, Wilson W (2006) Using ecosystem engineers to restore ecological systems. Trends Ecol Evol 21: 493-500.
5. Catford J, Jansson R, Nilsson C (2009) Reducing redundancy in invasion ecology by integrating hypotheses into a single theoretical framework. Divers Distrib 15: 22-40.
6. Clavero M, García-Berthou E (2005) Invasive species are a leading cause of animal extinctions. Trends Ecol Evol 20: 110.
7. Correa M (1969-1998) Flora Patagónica, vol 7. INTA, Buenos Aires.
8. Correa M, Silva P, Wirht R, Tabarelli M, Leal I (2010) How leaf-cutting ants impact forests: drastic nest effects on light environment and plant assemblages. Oecologia 162: 103-115.
9. Coutinho L (1982) Aspectos ecologicos de sauva no cerrado. Os murundus de terra, as características psamofíticas das especies de sua vegetaçao e sua invasao pelo Capim Gordura. Rev Bras Biol 42: 147-153.
10. Crooks J (2002) Characterizing ecosystem-level consequences of biological invasions: the role of ecosystem engineers. Oikos 97: 153-166.
11. Currie C, Scott J, Summerbell R, Malloch D (1999) Fungus-growing ants use antibiotic-producing bacteria to control garden parasites. Nature 398: 701-704.
12. D'Antonio C, Hughes R, Mack M, Hitchcock D, Vitousek P (1998) The response of native grasses to the removal of invasive exotic grasses in the seasonally dry Hawaiian woodland. J Veg Sci 9: 699-712.
13. Daehler C (2003) Performance comparisons of co-occurring native and alien invasive plants: implications for conservation to agricultural weeds. Biol Conserv 84: 167-180.
14. Davis M, Pelsor M (2001) Experimental support for a resource-based mechanistic model of invasibility. Ecol Lett 4: 421-428.
15. Davis M, Grime J, Thompson K (2000) Fluctuating resource in plant communities: a general theory of invasibility. J Ecol 88: 528-534.
16. Farji-Brener AG (2001) Why are leaf-cutting ants more common in early secondary forests than in old-growth tropical forests? An evaluation of the palatable forage hypothesis. Oikos 92: 169-177.
17. Farji-Brener AG, Ghermandi L (2000) The influence of nests of leaf-cutting ants on plant species diversity in road verges of northern Patagonia. J Veg Sci 11: 453-460.
18. Farji-Brener AG, Ghermandi L (2004) Seedling recruitment in the semi-arid Patagonian steppe: facilitative effects of refuse dumps of leaf-cutting ants. J Veg Sci 15: 823-830.
19. Farji-Brener AG, Ghermandi L (2008) Leaf-cutting ant nests near roads increase fitness of exotic plant species in natural protected areas. Proc R Soc B 275: 1431-1440.
20. Farji-Brener AG, Illes A (2000) Do leaf-cutting ant nests make "bottom up" gaps in neotropical rain forests? A critical review of the evidence. Ecol Lett 3: 219-227.
21. Farji-Brener AG, Margutti L (1997) Patterns of plant species in relation to Acromyrmexlobicornis nest-mounds on roadside vegetation in northwest Patagonia. Int J Ecol Environ Sci 23: 37-47.
22. Farji-Brener AG, Sasal Y (2003) Is dump material an effective small-scale deterrent to herbivory by leaf-cutting ants? Ecoscience 10: 151-154.
23. Farji-Brener AG, Silva J (1995) Leaf-cutting ant nests and soil fertility in a well-drained savanna in western Venezuela. Biotropica 27: 250-253.
24. Gibson J, Connolly J, Hartnett D, Weidenhamer J (1999) Designs for greenhouse studies of interactions between plants. J Ecol 87: 1-16.
25. Hastings A, Byers J, Crooks J, Cuddington K, Jones C, Lambrinos J, Talley T, Wilson W (2007) Ecosystem engineers in space and time. Ecol Lett 10: 153-164.
26. Horvitz C, Schemske D (2002) Effects of plant size, leaf herbivory, local competition and fruit production on survival, growth and future reproduction of a neotropical herb. J Ecol 90: 279-290.
27. Jones C, Lawton J, Shachar M (1994) Organisms as ecosystem engineers. Oikos 69: 373-386.
28. Jones C, Lawton J, Shachar M (1997) Positive and negative effects of organisms as physical ecosystem engineers. Ecology 78: 839-841.
29. Larcher W (1995) Physiological plant ecology, 3rd edn. Springer, New York.
30. Levine JM (2000) Species diversity and biological invasions: relating local process to community pattern. Science 288: 852-854.
31. Meiners SJ (2007) Native and exotic plant species exhibit similar population dynamics during succession. Ecology 88: 1098-1104.
32. Moutinho P, Nepstad D, Davidson E (2003) Influence of leaf-cutting ant nests on secondary forest growth and soil properties in Amazonia. Ecology 84: 1265-1276.
33. Parker I, Simberloff D, Lonsdale W, Goodell K, Wonham M, Kareiva P, Williamson M, Von Holle B, Moyle P, Byers J, Goldwasser L (1999) Impact: toward a framework for understanding the ecological effects of invaders. Biol Inversions 1: 3-19.
34. Richards JE (1993) Chemical characterization of plant tissue. In: Carter MR (ed) Soil sampling and methods of analysis. Canadian Society of Soil Science, Pinawa, pp 115-139.
35. Shea K, Chesson P (2002) Community ecology theory as a framework for biological invasions. Trend Ecol Evol 17: 170-176.
36. Siemann E, Rogers W (2007) The role of soil resources in an exotic tree invasion in Texas coastal prairie. J Ecol 95: 689-697.
37. Sternberg L, Pinzon M, Moreira M, Moutinho P, Rojas E, Herre A (2007) Plants use macronutrients accumulated in leaf-cutting ant nests. Proc R Soc B 274: 315-321.
38. Suding K, LeJeune K, Seastdet T (2004) Competitive impacts and responses of an invasive weed: dependencies on nitrogen and phosphorus availability. Oecologia 14: 526-535.
39. Vasconcelos H, Vieira-Neto E, Mundim F, Bruna E (2006) Roads alter the colonization dynamics of a keystone herbivore in Neotropical savannas. Biotropica 38: 661-665.
40. Von Holle B, Simberloff D (2005) Ecological resistance to biological invasion overwhelmed by propagule pressure. Ecology 86: 3212-3218.
41. Wirth R, Herz H, Rye I, Beyschlag W, Hölldobler B (2003) Herbivory of leaf-cutting ants. Springer, Berlin.
42. Wirth R, Meyer S, Almeida W, Araujo M, Barbosa V, Leal I (2007) Increasing densities of leaf-cutting ants (Atta spp.) with proximity to the edge in a Brazilian Atlantic forest. J Trop Ecol 23: 501-505.
43. Wright J, Jones C (2004) Predicting the effects of ecosystem engineers on patch-scale species richness from primary productivity. Ecology 85: 2071-2081.
44. Zou J, Rogers W, Siemann E (2007) Differences in morphological and physiological traits between native and invasive populations of Sapium sebiferum. Funct Ecol 21: 721-730.