Tolerating castration by hiding flowers in plain sight

A key challenge in the study of inter-specific cooperation, or mutualisms, is to understand the mechanisms that prevent cheating. However, many mutualisms are still invaded by parasites, and we propose that plant ‘tolerance strategies’, which allow an individual to re-grow and/or reproduce after damage, might have evolved to recover some of the fitness lost to parasitism. We focus on the ant plant Cordia nodosa and its protecting ant symbionts Allomerus octoarticulatus and Azteca spp. Allomerus is a castration parasite, destroying host flowers. However, some flowers are produced on new branch shoots, where they escape castration. Here, we ask whether C. nodosa tolerates castration by directing floral growth to new shoots. We find that C. nodosa produces four times more floral buds on the new shoots of Allomerus-inhabited plants, compared to Azteca-inhabited plants. Additionally, on Allomerus-inhabited plants, the production of floral buds is three times greater on new than on mature shoots, and more floral buds are grown on plants with new shoots than on those without. We conclude therefore that C. nodosa tolerates castration by re-allocating floral resources to new shoots. We also test whether tolerance exploits behavioural differences between the brood-tending ‘nurse’ ant worker caste, which is active on mature shoots, and the new shoot-protecting ‘patroller’ caste. Behavioural assay experiments reveal that nurse ants are strongly attracted to extracts of flowers, whereas patrollers are not, suggesting that nurses are the primary castrating caste. Thus, producing flowers on new shoots avoids the castrating caste. We finish by proposing that tolerance strategies can promote the evolution and maintenance of mutualism.     

基于主成分分析法的产业共生系统生态效率评价研究

生态工业园区是我国发展循环经济的重要载体,如何准确评价当前我国生态工业园区的生态效率对生态工业园区建设和发展有重要的意义。以生态效率和产业生态学理论为基础,参照国家环保总局《综合类生态工业园区标准（试行）》,建立了产业共生系统生态效率评价指标体系,并以主成分分析为基础,提出了产业共生系统生态效率评价方法。通过苏州高新区、苏州工业园区生态工业园和无锡新区生态工业示范园区等3个工业园区的案例研究得出样本指标中对生态效率影响最大的3个主成分和样本主成分的排名,以及生态效率进行比较排序,发现苏州工业园区生态工业园总体生态效率最高,无锡新区生态工业示范园区其次,苏州高新区则相对较差。根据各园区在各主成分的效率比较,指出各园区有待改进的环节。具体说明主成分分析在生态产业共生系统生态效率中的运用及优点。