RESUME EKOLOGI

Mutualistic Key Species Part 2 Distribution of mutual seeds as key species           It appears that ants that disperse seed have a significat influence on the structure of planst communities in the species-richfynbos of south afica. Caroline christian(2001) observed theat native ants disperse 30% of the seeds in the shrublands of the fynbos. The plant attract the services of these dispersers with food rewards on the seeds called elaiosomes. However, the argentine ant, Linepithema humile(figure 17.19), which does not disperse seeds, has invaded the shrublands. Christian documented how the invading argentine ants have displaced(as they hve in other regions) many of native ant species in the fynbos. In addition, she discovered that the native ant species most impacted by argentine ant invasion are those species most likely to disperse larger seeds.           Seed-dispersing ants are impo...

Key Species Mutualistic Part 1 Cleansers as a key species           Many species of fish on coral reef clean other fish of ectoparasites. This relationship, which involves the cleaner fish and its clients, has been shown to be a true mutualism. One of the most widely distributed cleaner fish in the indo-pacific region is the cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidatus(see figure 15.21a). the feeding activity of cleaner wrasses is intense. Alexandra Grutter of the university of Queensland, Australis, has shown that a single fishes per day. She also performed expriments(Grutter 1999) that documented that fish on reef without cleaner wrasses harbor approximately four times the number of parasitic isopods as those living on reef with cleaner wrasses. What effesct might cleaning activity by L. Dimidatus have on the diversity of fish on coral reef? This in question addressed with a series of field experiments by Redounan Bshary of University of ...