Abstract
Plants bearing extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) serve diverse ecological functions by providing nectar to a broad spectrum of arthropods (e.g., ants, parasitoids). This study examined the extent to which plant architecture of American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis L.; Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis [L.] Bolli), resulting from two pruning methods that produced herbaceous (base-pruning) and woody (high-pruning) stems, and elderberry genotype (nine genotypes were evaluated) influenced ant attendance and arthropod abundance and diversity on elderberry EFNs. Results showed that the proportion of elderberry plants that produced EFNs was significantly greater for the base-pruning compared to the high-pruning method. The positive relationship found between the number of EFN-bearing plants that secreted nectar and ant attendance on EFNs was greater for the base-pruned plants compared to high-pruned plants. Plant genotype also significantly influenced the outcome. When base-pruned, the proportion of plants attended by ants was greatest for the genotypes Ocoee and Marge. The proportion of plants visited by other arthropods (e.g., parasitoids and predators) was greatest for the genotypes Ocoee, Bob Gordon, and Wyldewood. Overall, our findings indicate that the combination of plant genotype selection and selective pruning can modulate insect–plant interactions including mutualistic ant–elderberry associations and visitations by an array of arthropods.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Jason Miller (JM), Jacob Wilson, Austen Dudenhoeffer (AD), and Dinesh Panday (Lincoln University) for assisting with data collection. We would also like to thank DeMarco Bernice (Michigan State University) and Luc Leblanc (University of Idaho) for the identification of ant and wasp specimens collected from the field trial. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and to JM and AD for valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Evans-Allen project Accession no. 233899 (https://nifa.usda.gov/program/agricultural-research-1890-land-grant-institutions). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: JCP RM. Performed the experiments: RM. Analyzed the data: RM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JCP. Wrote the paper: RM JCP.
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Piñero, J.C., Manandhar, R. Ant attendance and arthropod diversity on elderberry extrafloral nectaries are influenced by plant genotype and pruning method. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 14, 595–604 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-020-09771-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-020-09771-8