Fig trees are important components of tropical forests, because their fruits are eaten by so many vertebrates, but they depend on pollinating fig wasps to produce mature fruits. Disturbance to habitat structure can ha...Fig trees are important components of tropical forests, because their fruits are eaten by so many vertebrates, but they depend on pollinating fig wasps to produce mature fruits. Disturbance to habitat structure can have a major impact on insect diversity and com- position, potentially reducing fruit yields. We investigated the impact of habitat disturbance on the fig wasp community associated with male figs ofFicus tinctoria in Xishuangbanna, China. The community comprised one pollinator species Liporrhopalum gibbosae and six non-pollinating wasp species： Sycoscapter sp. 1, Philotrypesis ravii, Philotrypesis sp. 1, Neosycophila omeomorpha, Sycophila sp.1, and Walkerella sp.1. More disturbed areas were characterized by higher temperatures, less shade, and more vehicle noise. The response of the fig wasp community was complex, with no simple relationship between intensity of disturbance and pollinator abundance. However, the sex ratios （proportion of male progeny） of pollinators increased significantly in more disturbed areas. We conclude that potential changes in fig wasp community composition brought about by disturbance, are unpredictable, with unclear consequences for tropical rainforest biodiversity.展开更多
基金Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Professor Jean-Yves Rusplus for identifying the fig wasps of Ficus tinctoria. We wish to thank Stephen Compton for providing help with statistical methods and revising the manuscript. We also thank Iain Taylor, Paolo Pelosi, Roy Turkington, Loren Bell and Kari Malen and anonymous referees for good suggestions and reviewing the manuscript. The authors also thank Zhen-Ji Wang, Jun-Ming Guan, Pei Yang and Yi Zhao for their help with the fieldwork. The study was funded by the Chinese Natural Science Foundation （30571507, 30670358）.
文摘Fig trees are important components of tropical forests, because their fruits are eaten by so many vertebrates, but they depend on pollinating fig wasps to produce mature fruits. Disturbance to habitat structure can have a major impact on insect diversity and com- position, potentially reducing fruit yields. We investigated the impact of habitat disturbance on the fig wasp community associated with male figs ofFicus tinctoria in Xishuangbanna, China. The community comprised one pollinator species Liporrhopalum gibbosae and six non-pollinating wasp species： Sycoscapter sp. 1, Philotrypesis ravii, Philotrypesis sp. 1, Neosycophila omeomorpha, Sycophila sp.1, and Walkerella sp.1. More disturbed areas were characterized by higher temperatures, less shade, and more vehicle noise. The response of the fig wasp community was complex, with no simple relationship between intensity of disturbance and pollinator abundance. However, the sex ratios （proportion of male progeny） of pollinators increased significantly in more disturbed areas. We conclude that potential changes in fig wasp community composition brought about by disturbance, are unpredictable, with unclear consequences for tropical rainforest biodiversity.
