Article
Unexpected High Diversity of Galling Insects in the Amazonian Upper Canopy: The Savanna Out There
Registro en:
JULIÃO, Genimar R. et al. Unexpected High Diversity of Galling Insects in the Amazonian Upper Canopy: The Savanna Out There. PLoS ONE, v. 9, n. 12, p. 1-20, Dec. 31, 2014.
10.1371/journal.pone.0114986
Autor
Julião, Genimar R.
Venticinque, Eduardo M.
Fernandes, G. Wilson
Price, Peter W.
Resumen
A relatively large number of studies reassert the strong relationship between galling insect diversity and extreme hydric and thermal status in some habitats, and an overall pattern of a greater number of galling species in the understory of scleromorphic vegetation. We compared galling insect diversity in the forest canopy and its relationship with tree richness among upland terra firme, várzea, and igapó floodplains in Amazonia, Brazil. The soils of these forest types have highly different hydric and nutritional status. Overall, we examined the upper layer of 1,091 tree crowns. Galling species richness and abundance were higher in terra firme forests
compared to várzea and igapó forests. GLM-ANCOVA models revealed that the number of tree species sampled in each forest type was determinant in the gallforming
insect diversity. The ratio between galling insect richness and number of
tree species sampled (GIR/TSS ratio) was higher in the terra firme forest and in
seasonally flooded igapó, while the va´ rzea presented the lowest GIR/TSS ratio. In this study, we recorded unprecedented values of galling species diversity and
abundance per sampling point. The GIR/TSS ratio from várzea was approximately
2.5 times higher than the highest value of this ratio ever reported in the literature.
Based on this fact, we ascertained that várzea and igapó floodplain forests (with
lower GIA and GIR), together with the speciose terra firme galling community
emerge as the gall diversity apex landscape among all biogeographic regions
already investigated. Contrary to expectation, our results also support the ‘‘harsh environment hypothesis’’, and unveil the Amazonian upper canopy as similar to Mediterranean vegetation habitats, hygrothermically stressed environments with leaf temperature at lethal limits and high levels of leaf sclerophylly.