Challenges in the early ontogeny of a mutualistic plant: Resource availability and plant defense in juvenile Cecropia ant-plants

Mutualistic species often must survive periods of their development without their mutualist partner, but we lack a clear understanding of the ecological mechanisms that maintain mutualisms despite these gaps in partnership. In ant-plant protection mutualisms, plants house ant colonies that deter herbivores. Yet juvenile ant-plants often lack symbiotic ant colonies and must withstand herbivory pressure until they are colonized by ants. A sapling's ability to host ants or to employ alternative direct defenses, such as leaf secondary metabolites, may depend on access to key resources, like light, soil nutrients, and water. Alternatively, juvenile ant-plants may receive biotic protection at little resource cost from generalist predators, such as spiders. We examined whether juvenile Cecropia trees maintained leaf defenses, and whether sapling ant and chemical defenses were associated with the sapling's access to resources. We surveyed three species of naturally occurring juvenile Cecropia t..., , , This README file was generated on 2025-02-19 by Stephanie Coronado.

**GENERAL INFORMATION**

Title of Dataset: *Challenges in the early ontogeny of a mutualistic plant: resource availability and plant defense in juvenile Cecropia ant-plants*

Author Information:

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A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: EG Pringle
Institution: University of Nevada, Reno
Address: 1664 N Virginia St, Reno, NV 89557
Email: [e-mail]

B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information
Name: SM Coronado
Institution: University of Nevada, Reno
Address: 1664 N Virginia St, Reno, NV 89557
Email: [e-mail]
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Year (MM/YYYY) and geographic location of data collection: **06/2019 - 08/2019** and **06/2022 - 01/2023** in **Guanacaste, Costa Rica**

Funding sources that supported the collection of the data:
University of Nevada, Reno
Fulbright US Student Program

**SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION**

Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: None

Annual climatic water d...