300548 SE Mutualistic Interactions of plants and ants (2015W)

Ant-plant interactions, important in both temperate and tropical communities, are increasingly used as model systems in ecological and evolutionary research. This seminar deals with ant-plant protection mutualisms, ranging from opportunistic, facultative interactions, in which plants offer food rewards to foraging ant workers, to interactions in which plants also offer hollow structures to nesting ants encouraging more constant association. This latter type of interaction includes a number of specific and obligate symbioses. Some of these systems varying in their degree of specialization will be compared in regard to the evolutionary dynamics of interspecies interactions.