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Mendeley readers
Attention Score in Context
| Title |
The fitness consequences of bearing domatia and having the right ant partner: experiments with protective and non-protective ants in a semi-myrmecophyte
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|---|---|
| Published in |
Oecologia, May 2005
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00442-005-0107-3 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Laurence Gaume, Merry Zacharias, Vladimir Grosbois, Renee M. Borges |
| Abstract |
The fitness advantage provided by caulinary domatia to myrmecophytes has never been directly demonstrated because most myrmecophytic species do not present any individual variation in the presence of domatia and the removal of domatia from entire plants is a destructive process. The semi-myrmecophytic tree, Humboldtia brunonis (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae), is an ideal species to investigate the selective advantage conferred by domatia because within the same population, some plants are devoid of domatia while others bear them. Several ant species patrol the plant for extra-floral nectar. Fruit production was found to be enhanced in domatia-bearing trees compared to trees devoid of domatia independent of the ant associate. However, this domatium effect was most conspicuous for trees associated with the populous and nomadic ant, Technomyrmex albipes. This species is a frequent associate of H. brunonis, inhabiting its domatia or building carton nests on it. Ant exclusion experiments revealed that T. albipes was the only ant to provide efficient anti-herbivore protection to the leaves of its host tree. Measures of ant activity as well as experiments using caterpillars revealed that the higher efficiency of T. albipes was due to its greater patrolling density and consequent shorter lag time in attacking the larvae. T. albipes also provided efficient anti-herbivore protection to flowers since fruit initiation was greater on ant-patrolled inflorescences than on those from which ants were excluded. We therefore demonstrated that caulinary domatia provide a selective advantage to their host-plant and that biotic defence is potentially the main fitness benefit mediated by domatia. However, it is not the sole advantage. The general positive effect of domatia on fruit set in this ant-plant could reflect other benefits conferred by domatia-inhabitants, which are not restricted to ants in this myrmecophyte, but comprise a large diversity of other invertebrates. Our results indicate that mutualisms enhance the evolution of myrmecophytism. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 99 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 4 | 4% |
| Germany | 2 | 2% |
| Malaysia | 1 | 1% |
| Ghana | 1 | 1% |
| Italy | 1 | 1% |
| Costa Rica | 1 | 1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 1% |
| Canada | 1 | 1% |
| Argentina | 1 | 1% |
| Other | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 85 | 86% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 22 | 22% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 19 | 19% |
| Student > Master | 14 | 14% |
| Student > Bachelor | 8 | 8% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 6 | 6% |
| Other | 21 | 21% |
| Unknown | 9 | 9% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 59 | 60% |
| Environmental Science | 14 | 14% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 4 | 4% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 3 | 3% |
| Social Sciences | 2 | 2% |
| Other | 2 | 2% |
| Unknown | 15 | 15% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 February 2014.
All research outputs
#3,023,042
of 22,743,667 outputs
Outputs from Oecologia
#543
of 4,208 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,446
of 57,567 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Oecologia
#2
of 20 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,743,667 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,208 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 57,567 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 20 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its contemporaries.