INVESTIGADORES
CALVIÑO Ana Alejandra
artículos
Título:
Living in an urban pod: Seed predation and parasitism of bruchid beetles in a native tree species
Autor/es:
GALFRASCOLI, GIOVANA MARÍA; CALVIÑO, ANA; CHIAPERO, ANA LAURA; FENOGLIO, MARÍA SILVINA
Revista:
ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Año: 2022
ISSN:
0307-6946
Resumen:
1. Urbanisation is one of the main drivers of insect species loss worldwide. However,its impacts on ecological interactions involving insects still deserve further research,especially seed predation and parasitism of seed predators.2. Here, we evaluated the seed predation rate by the specialist bruchid beetle Pseudo-pachymerina spinipes and its parasitism rate in the native tree Vachellia caven(Fabaceae) along an urbanisation gradient in Cordoba (Argentina). Since resourceavailability can influence these ecological interactions, we also investigated whetherseed and prey availability could affect seed predation and parasitism rates,respectively.3. We sampled trees in 10 sampling sites along an urbanisation gradient estimated bythe Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within a 100 m radius. In oursystem, sites with low NDVI, beyond representing the low amount of vegetationcover, also indicate high surface temperature and low availability of host trees.4. Seed predation in V. caven and the parasitism rate of P. spinipes were significantlyreduced with increasing urbanisation. Notably, seed availability at the pod level didnot affect seed predation rate, while prey availability was negatively correlated withparasitism rate.5. These findings suggest a deleterious effect of urbanisation on the studied antago-nistic interactions, giving no support to the idea of resource limitation effects.