Abstract
BackgroundThe combined influence of life-history strategy and resource dispersion on dispersal evolution of a biological community, and by extension, on community assemblage, has received sparse attention. Highly specialized fig wasp communities are ideal for addressing this question since the life-history strategies that affect their pace of life and the dispersion of their oviposition resources vary. We compared dispersal capacities of the wasp community of a widespread tropical fig, Ficus racemosa, by measuring flight durations, somatic lipid content and resting metabolic rates.ResultsWasp species exhibiting greater flight durations had higher energy reserves and resting metabolic rates. “Fast”-paced species showed higher dispersal capacities reflecting requirements for rapid resource location within short adult lifespans. Longer-lived “slow”-paced species exhibited lower dispersal capacities. Most dispersal traits were negatively related with resource dispersion while their variances were positively related with this variable, suggesting that resource dispersion selects for dispersal capacity. Dispersal traits exhibited a phylogenetic signal.ConclusionsUsing a combination of phylogeny, trait functionality and community features, we explain how dispersal traits may have co-evolved with life-history strategies in fig wasps and influenced a predisposition for dispersal. We speculate how processes influencing dispersal trait expression of community members may affect resource occupancy and community assemblage.
Highlights
The combined influence of life-history strategy and resource dispersion on dispersal evolution of a biological community, and by extension, on community assemblage, has received sparse attention
Life-history strategies and dispersal traits Trait values for flight duration, somatic lipid content, and specific resting metabolic rate (sRMR) for each species are provided in Additional file 1: Table S1
We demonstrate that the availability of oviposition resources selects for dispersal traits and influences the associated trait variances
Summary
The combined influence of life-history strategy and resource dispersion on dispersal evolution of a biological community, and by extension, on community assemblage, has received sparse attention. One approach to understanding the relationships between life history and dispersal traits in biological communities has been the conceptual framework of competition/ colonization trade-offs [2]. This framework is helpful only when community members occupy the same guild and compete for the same resource, and fails to capture the complexities of community assemblages within. With shorter temporal availability of stochastically occurring resources, the effective spatial resource dispersion increases, selecting for increased dispersal abilities (Fig. 1). Examples of such resource availabilities are found in invertebrate communities that inhabit ephemeral resources such as dung pats, moss patches, phytotelmata, or the enclosed microcosms of fig inflorescences called syconia [6,7,8]
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