Meeting Abstract
The symbiosis between Azteca ants and Cecropia trees is one of the most successful and prominent mutualisms of the neotropics. Plants provide food bodies and nesting cavities for ant colonies that protect the plant from herbivores and encroaching vines. However, some colonies are consistently more aggressive than others in a suite of behavioral traits measured in the field, revealing that colonies themselves have personalities. Plants with more active, aggressive colonies have less leaf damage, suggesting that collective personality has ecologically relevant consequences. What is driving the differences in personality types? I designed an experiment to test whether collective personality is a fixed, inherent property of the colony or influenced by environmental factors. To determine if soil nutrients influences plant resources and colony behavior, I conducted a three-phase experiment where I 1) assessed colony behavior in the field, 2) harvested trees, extracted colonies, and transplanted them into greenhouse plants under differing nutrient treatments, and 3) re-assessed colony behavior 10 months later. Analyses of ant behavior, colony growth, and plant investment are currently underway to determine the persistence of personality and its interaction with plant nutrients. This research is important to our understanding of individual differences in behavior, how they arise, and how can influence other species in their ecosystems.
