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Predators: an overlooked player in plant-pollinator relationships

August 13, 2003

Biologists have long recognized that predators can help to shape ecological communities -- wolves promote the growth of young trees through predation on moose, otters keep kelp forests thriving by preying on sea urchins, etc. Yet we have seldom considered the consequences of predation on animals that help plants reproduce. Predation on pollinators is widespread, from humans feeding on pollinating bats in parts of Asia to spiders that disguise themselves in flowers to capture insects seeking nectar.

In a forthcoming article in Ecology Letters, a researcher at the University of California Berkeley suggests that such predation likely influences reproduction in flowering plants. In support of this idea, ecologist Kenwyn Suttle describes a field study conducted with undergraduate Mary Sorensen, where spiders that ambush pollinating insects decrease seed production in flowers on which they hunt. Suttle suggests that such interactions are common in nature and that biologists, perhaps, have only to look for them.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd