Seasonal change in the structure of fig-wasp community and its implication for conservation |
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Authors: | Rui-Wu Wang Baa-Fa Sun |
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Institution: | (1) Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, People's Republic of China;(2) Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, People's Republic of China;(3) Present address: Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Kunming Division, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 88 Xuefu Road, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, People's Republic of China; |
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Abstract: | Figs (Moraceae) and their pollinating wasps (Agaonidae) constitute a famous reciprocal mutualism in which figs provide some
female flowers for the development of fig wasp offspring while the fig wasps pollinate fig flowers. However, figs also host
many non-pollinating wasps which are either parasitoids or resource competitors of pollinators, and bring no benefit for figs
and are detrimental to fig’ fitness. Our data onFicus racemosa in Xishuangbanna showed that the numbers of non-pollinators and the mature syconia without pollinator wasps increase in rainy
season, especially in the highly fragmented forest. This might be because of the longer developing time of the syconia and
thereby longer oviposition time to non-pollinators in the dry season. The galled flower and the viable seed percentages in
dry seasons are also larger than in rainy seasons in both primary forest and fragmented forest, and the development of non-pollinators
is mainly at the expense of pollinator wasps. Our results showed that there exists a discriminative seasonal impact of non-pollinators
and fragmentation effects on population size of fig’s pollinators. This implies that fig/fig wasp mutualism is more fragile
in dry season, and that the critical population size and breeding units of figs in seasonal area might be larger than previously
estimated without considering the seasonal change of pollinator population. |
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