Island Invasion by a Threatened Tree Species: Evidence for Natural Enemy Release of Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) on Dominica, Lesser Antilles

Despite its appeal to explain plant invasions, the enemy release hypothesis (ERH) remains largely unexplored for tropical forest trees. Even scarcer are ERH studies conducted on the same host species at both the community and biogeographical scale, irrespective of the system or plant life form. In Cabrits National Park, Dominica, we observed patterns consistent with enemy release of two introduced, congeneric mahogany species, Swietenia macrophylla and S. mahagoni, planted almost 50 years ago. Swietenia populations at Cabrits have reproduced, with S. macrophylla juveniles established in and out of plantation areas at densities much higher than observed in its native range. Swietenia macrophylla juveniles also experienced significantly lower leaf-level herbivory (∼3.0%) than nine co-occurring species native to Dominica (8.4–21.8%), and far lower than conspecific herbivory observed in its native range (11%–43%, on average). These complimentary findings at multiple scales support ERH, and confirm that Swietenia has naturalized at Cabrits. However, Swietenia abundance was positively correlated with native plant diversity at the seedling stage, and only marginally negatively correlated with native plant abundance for stems ≥1-cm dbh. Taken together, these descriptive patterns point to relaxed enemy pressure from specialized enemies, specifically the defoliator Steniscadia poliophaea and the shoot-borer Hypsipyla grandella, as a leading explanation for the enhanced recruitment of Swietenia trees documented at Cabrits

Plant Size as Determinant of Species Richness of Herbivores, Natural Enemies and Pollinators across 21 Brassicaceae Species.

Large plants are often more conspicuous and more attractive for associated animals than small plants, e.g. due to their wider range of resources. Therefore, plant size can positively affect species richness of associated animals, as shown for single groups of herbivores, but studies usually consider intraspecific size differences of plants in unstandardised environments. As comprehensive tests of interspecific plant size differences under standardised conditions are missing so far, we investigated effects of plant size on species richness of all associated arthropods using a common garden experiment with 21 Brassicaceae species covering a broad interspecific plant size gradient from 10 to 130 cm height. We recorded plant associated ecto- and endophagous herbivores, their natural enemies and pollinators on and in each aboveground plant organ, i.e. flowers, fruits, leaves and stems. Plant size (measured as height from the ground), the number of different plant organ entities and their biomass were assessed. Increasing plant size led to increased species richness of associated herbivores, natural enemies and pollinating insects. This pattern was found for ectophagous and endophagous herbivores, their natural enemies, as well as for herbivores associated with leaves and fruits and their natural enemies, independently of the additional positive effects of resource availability (i.e. organ biomass or number of entities and, regarding natural enemies, herbivore species richness). We found a lower R2 for pollinators compared to herbivores and natural enemies, probably caused by the high importance of flower characteristics for pollinator species richness besides plant size. Overall, the increase in plant height from 10 to 130 cm led to a 2.7-fold increase in predicted total arthropod species richness. In conclusion, plant size is a comprehensive driver of species richness of the plant associated arthropods, including pollinators, herbivores and their natural enemies, whether they are endophagous or ectophagous or associated with leaves or fruits

Scale-dependent, contrasting effects of habitat fragmentation on host-natural enemy trophic interactions

Context: Habitat fragmentation can have contrasting effects on species and their interactions within communities, changing community structure and function. Parasitoids and pathogens are key natural enemies in invertebrate communities, but their responses to fragmentation have not been explored within the same community. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the scale-dependent effects of habitat fragmentation on the population density of a lepidopteran host and particularly its trophic interactions with a specialist parasitoid and virus. Methods: Host density and host larval-mortality from the parasitoid and the virus were measured in twelve isolated sites and thirteen connected sites. An index of habitat isolation was created based on the amount of suitable habitat surrounding sites at a range of spatial scales (0.1–5 km radii), and the direct and indirect effects of habitat isolation were analysed using generalised linear mixed effects models. Results: Consistent with predictions, habitat isolation had direct negative effects on host density at the smallest and largest spatial scales, and indirect negative effects on host mortality from the virus at the largest scale, but in contrast to predictions it had direct positive effects on parasitism at small and medium scales. Conclusions: Higher trophic level species may still display responses to habitat fragmentation contrary to predictions based on well supported theory and empirical evidence. The mechanisms underlying these responses may be elucidated by studying responses, contrary to expectations, shared by related species. Developing general predictions about the responses of host-pathogen interactions to fragmentation will require greater understanding of the system-specific mechanisms by which fragmentation can influence pathogen transmission