How specialised must natural enemies be to facilitate coexistence among plants?

The Janzen‐Connell hypothesis proposes that plant interactions with host‐specific antagonists can impair the fitness of locally abundant species and thereby facilitate coexistence. However, insects and pathogens that associate with multiple hosts may mediate exclusion rather than coexistence. We emp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2013-08, Vol.16 (8), p.995-1003
Main Authors: Sedio, Brian E., Ostling, Annette M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Biodiversity
Biological and medical sciences
Biota
Coexistence
Coleoptera - physiology
community structure
Food Chain
Forestry
frequency dependence
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fungi - physiology
General aspects
General forest ecology
Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology
host specialisation
Insects
Janzen-Connell
Larva - growth & development
Larva - physiology
Lepidoptera - growth & development
Lepidoptera - physiology
Models, Biological
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Plant ecology
Plant pathology
Plant Physiological Phenomena
Plant resistance
plant-enemy interactions
Plants - microbiology
species richness
Stochastic Processes
tropical forest
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Summary:The Janzen‐Connell hypothesis proposes that plant interactions with host‐specific antagonists can impair the fitness of locally abundant species and thereby facilitate coexistence. However, insects and pathogens that associate with multiple hosts may mediate exclusion rather than coexistence. We employ a simulation model to examine the effect of enemy host breadth on plant species richness and defence community structure, and to assess expected diversity maintenance in example systems. Only models in which plant enemy similarity declines rapidly with defence similarity support greater species richness than models of neutral drift. In contrast, a wide range of enemy host breadths result in spatial dispersion of defence traits, at both landscape and local scales, indicating that enemy‐mediated competition may increase defence‐trait diversity without enhancing species richness. Nevertheless, insect and pathogen host associations in Panama and Papua New Guinea demonstrate a potential to enhance plant species richness and defence‐trait diversity comparable to strictly specialised enemies.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.12130