Meeting Abstract
The symbiosis between Azteca ants and Cecropia trees is one of the most successful and prominent mutualisms of the neotropics. Ants protect the plant from herbivores and encroaching vines in return for food bodies and nesting cavities. However, little is known about the intricacies of the behavioral ecology of the ant-plant interactions. I conducted a field study and discovered protection behavior varies substantially within the same Azteca species due to a colony-level behavioral syndrome (colonies differ repeatably in behavioral traits and these traits are correlated with one another) that is independent of colony size. Furthermore, colony personality type correlates with plant health such that more active, aggressive colonies allow less leaf damage on their host plants. Is this collective behavioral syndrome a fixed, inherent property of the colony or influenced by resource availability? Soil nutrients increase the resources available to the colony via plant growth and food body production. Using greenhouse colony transplants and soil nutrient manipulations, further experimentation is underway to test potential causes of colony-level behavioral syndromes.
