Effects of anthropic fires on the interaction networks between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and hawkmoth pollinated plants Chaco Serrano Forest

Gabriel Grill
Gabriel Grill
Córdoba, Argentina
Cohort:
2024
project abstract

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning on a global scale are being strongly affected by human activities in the Anthropocene. In this context, it has been proposed that intentional fires can be significant promoters of ecosystem degradation. Anthropic fires, as part of land use changes, cause modifications in the structure of interaction networks. Disturbed sites where vegetation and other organisms are removed by fire can alter plant interactions with organisms both above and below the soil. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonize the roots of approximately 80% of terrestrial plants and play a crucial ecological role in relation to the demographic patterns of plant species by aiding in the colonization of sites during early successional stages or enabling invasive plant species to colonize new ecosystems. Additionally, they are involved in numerous above-ground ecological processes of plants, such as pollination through their influence on flower production. However, interaction networks between plants, pollinators, and fungal symbionts are poorly studied, and even less so have the changes in these bipartite plant-pollinator and plant-AMF networks been evaluated in the same study in response to a disturbance. Therefore, it is unknown what happens to the structure of the two bipartite interaction networks (plant-AMF and plant-pollinator) in a region subjected to anthropic pressures like the Chaco Serrano. In this study, we propose to evaluate the influence of land use changes (i.e., intentional fires) on the interaction networks between moth-pollinated plants ("sphingophilous plants"), their AMF, and their sphingid pollinators in the Chaco Serrano forest.