Pitcher plant facilitates prey capture in a sympatric congener

Lam, Weng Ngai; Wang, Wendy Yanling; Cheong, Loong Fah; Koh, Joseph Kok Hong; Foo, Maosheng; Chong, Kwek Yan; Tan, Hugh Tiang Wah

doi:10.1007/s11258-018-0796-4

Published: 16 January 2018

Pitcher plant facilitates prey capture in a sympatric congener

Weng Ngai Lam ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1188-1363¹,
Wendy Yanling Wang²,
Loong Fah Cheong²,
Joseph Kok Hong Koh²,
Maosheng Foo²,
Kwek Yan Chong¹ &
Hugh Tiang Wah Tan¹

Plant Ecology volume 219, pages 299–311 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Carnivorous plants avoid below-ground competition for nitrogen by utilizing an alternative nitrogen resource—invertebrate prey, but it remains unclear if sympatric carnivorous plants compete for prey resources. The aim of this study was to investigate if exploitative prey-resource competition occurs between the two sympatric pitcher plant species, Nepenthes rafflesiana and N. gracilis in Singapore. We first investigated if prey-resource partitioning occurs between these two species, and then investigated niche shift in N. gracilis by examining its pitcher contents along an in situ gradient of N. rafflesiana interspecific competition. Our results showed clear evidence of resource partitioning between the two species, but contrary to the expectation of competition, proximity to N. rafflesiana pitchers correlated with higher total prey numbers in N. gracilis pitchers. Our multivariate model of prey assemblages further suggested that N. rafflesiana facilitates N. gracilis prey capture, especially in several ant taxa that are trapped by both species. Concurrently, we found strong evidence for intraspecific competition between N. gracilis pitchers, suggesting that prey resources are exhaustible by pitcher-predation. Our results show that resource partitioning can be associated with facilitative interactions, instead of competition as is usually assumed. Facilitation is more typically expected between phylogenetically distant species, but divergences in resource acquisition strategies can permit facilitation between congeners.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following individuals for their advice and/or assistance with prey identification: Tan Ming Kai, for the Orthoptera; Ang Yuchen, for the Diptera; John Ascher and Chui Shao Xiong, for the Aculeata; Lee Yueying and Rachel Lim, for the Araneae; Shingo Hosoishi, Seiki Yamane and Eunice Soh, for the Formicidae; Christina Painting and James Koh, for the Opiliones and Anuj Jain and Gan Cheong Weei, for the Lepidoptera. We are grateful also to Stacey Liang and Ester Suen for their assistance in sample collection; and Francis Hui, for technical advice concerning the R package ‘boral’. We thank also Lai Hao Ran and Roman Carrasco for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Republic of Singapore
Weng Ngai Lam, Kwek Yan Chong & Hugh Tiang Wah Tan
Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, 2 Conservatory Drive, Singapore, 117377, Republic of Singapore
Wendy Yanling Wang, Loong Fah Cheong, Joseph Kok Hong Koh & Maosheng Foo

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Weng Ngai Lam
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Wendy Yanling Wang
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Loong Fah Cheong
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Joseph Kok Hong Koh
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Maosheng Foo
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Kwek Yan Chong
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Hugh Tiang Wah Tan
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Correspondence to Weng Ngai Lam.

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Communicated by Anna R. Armitage.

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Lam, W.N., Wang, W.Y., Cheong, L.F. et al. Pitcher plant facilitates prey capture in a sympatric congener. Plant Ecol 219, 299–311 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-018-0796-4

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Received: 29 August 2017
Accepted: 09 January 2018
Published: 16 January 2018
Issue Date: March 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-018-0796-4

Keywords

Nepenthes
Resource partitioning
Niche shift
Niche segregation
Facilitation
Competition

Pitcher plant facilitates prey capture in a sympatric congener

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