The changing dynamics of ant-tree cholla mutualisms along a desert urbanization gradient.

ABSTRACT: Urbanization, among the most widespread and multifaceted anthropogenic change drivers, exerts strong influences on a diversity of ecological communities worldwide. We have begun to understand how urbanization affects species diversity, yet we still have limited knowledge about the ways that species interactions are altered by urbanization. We have an especially poor understanding of how urbanization influences stress-buffering mutualisms, despite the high levels of multivariate stress that urban organisms must overcome and the importance of these interactions to the fitness of many organisms. In this study, we investigated the effects of urbanization on a mutualism between tree cholla cacti (Cylindropuntia imbricata) and visiting ants. We first examined how plant size, ant species composit

SUBMITTER: Lynch SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10065256 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature