L11 - Mutualistic Networks Flashcards
what is the percentage of land plants which have mutualistic interactions wwith fungi
80% have mycorrhizal associations
how does mutualism develop in bacterial interaction networks
exchange of organic substrates or metabolites between different populations
what is an example of an indirect benefit in a mutualistic association
plant pollinator - plant benefitd indirectly by getting pollen dispersed
what is an example of a direct benefit in a mutualistic association
pollinator gets energy from nectar, animal gets to feed on fruit, plant gets protected from getting eaten in mutualism with ants
what influence did evolutionary wise mutualism have
multicellularity possibly emerged from mutualism
what else, besides insects, is also a significant pollinator
rodents, bats, other nocturnal animals
what is the nestedness of a network
a measure of the systems stability and resilience
what is nestedness of an ecosystem composed of
a network structural pattern where specialist pollinato species visit plants species that are subsets of those visited by more generalist species of pollinators
what would a perfectly nested ecosystem look like
each interaction perfectly fit under each other like stairs/hierarchy
what is symmetry in mutualistic interactions
eg in plant pollinator, both of the species are a generalist, in asymmetrical one is generalist and the other is a specialist
what influence does nestedness and symmetry together have on the ecosystem
ability of ecosystem to withstand species loss, however the role is still debated
how does an ecosystem react if a specialist is removed compared to if a generalist is removed
if specialist removed, the ecosystem is able to buffer the loss better than if a generalist is lost
what effect does climate change have on mutualistic relationships
it may cause phenological mismatches, eg between plants and pollinators
how are mutualistic relationships impacted by temporal variation
many interactions change with different season/temperature/time, different types of habitats will have different dynamics
why does a lot of research not include nocturnal pollinators
difficult to survey and bias
why is inclusion of nocturnal interactions important in order to understand the ecosystem interactions as a whole (and its resilience)
inclusion of nocturnal interactions (eg pollinations) increase asymmetry and modularity, which consequently increases stability
how can pesticides, spatial mismatches and invasive species affect mutualistic networks
decrease connectivity, robustness and dispersal networks, which weakens the ecosystem
what is the benefit of using microbial mutualistic interactions as a model
easy and fast to grow, can grow them in lab conditions, can do experiments
what do microbial networks suggest happens with increased mutualistic interactions
higher rate of microbial community functioning (for example leaf litter decomposition)
what is specific about micrboial mutualistic networks and can be triggered for example by increase in temperature
can swithc between mutualism and competition rapidly
