Artículo
Complexity of leaf miner–parasitoid food webs declines with canopy height in Patagonian beech forests
Chaij, Jaquelina
; Devoto, Mariano
; Oleiro, Marina Ines
; Chaneton, Enrique Jose
; Mazía, Cristina Noemí
Fecha de publicación:
10/2016
Editorial:
Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Inc
Revista:
Ecological Entomology
ISSN:
0307-6946
Idioma:
Inglés
Tipo de recurso:
Artículo publicado
Clasificación temática:
Resumen
1. Consumer–resource species interactions form complex, dynamic networks, which may exhibit structural heterogeneity at various scales. This study set out to address whether host–parasitoid food web size and topology vary across forest canopy strata, and to what extent foliar resources and species abundances account for vertical patterns in network structure.
2. The vertical stratification of leaf miner–parasitoid food webs was examined in two monotypic beech (Nothofagus pumilio) forests in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Quantitative food webs were constructed for separate canopy layers by sampling foliage from three tree‐height classes at 0.5–1, 2–3 and 5–6 m above ground.
3. Leaf miner abundance per unit leaf mass and foliar damage (%) did not differ across strata, although foliage quality and quantity increased from the understorey to the upper canopy. Parasitism rates and food web complexity decreased with canopy height, as reflected by reduced linkage richness, linkage density, mean interaction strength, and host vulnerability.
4. Null model analyses revealed that food web metrics, especially in the upper canopy, were often lower than expected when compared with randomly structured networks. Overall, these patterns held for two forests differing in vertical structure and in dominant miner morphotype and parasitoid species.
5. These results suggest that vertical declines in network complexity may be driven by the parasitoids' limited functional response to host abundance and dispersal from pupation sites in the forest floor. A broader constraint on food web structure seemed to be imposed by host–parasitoid trait matching, a reflection of large‐scale assembly processes.
Palabras clave:
Herbivory
,
Network Structure
,
Null Model
,
Parasitism
,
Stratification
Archivos asociados
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Articulos(IFEVA)
Articulos de INST.D/INV.FISIOLOGICAS Y ECO.VINCULADAS A L/AGRIC
Articulos de INST.D/INV.FISIOLOGICAS Y ECO.VINCULADAS A L/AGRIC
Articulos(SEDE CENTRAL)
Articulos de SEDE CENTRAL
Articulos de SEDE CENTRAL
Citación
Chaij, Jaquelina; Devoto, Mariano; Oleiro, Marina Ines; Chaneton, Enrique Jose; Mazía, Cristina Noemí; Complexity of leaf miner–parasitoid food webs declines with canopy height in Patagonian beech forests; Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Inc; Ecological Entomology; 41; 5; 10-2016; 599-610
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