Bromeliad-living spiders improve host plant nutrition and growth.
@article{Romero2006BromeliadlivingSI, title={Bromeliad-living spiders improve host plant nutrition and growth.}, author={Gustavo Quevedo Romero and Paulo Mazzafera and Jo{\~a}o Vasconcellos‐Neto and Paulo Cesar Ocheuze Trivelin}, journal={Ecology}, year={2006}, volume={87 4}, pages={ 803-8 } }
Although bromeliads are believed to obtain nutrients from debris deposited by animals in their rosettes, there is little evidence to support this assumption. Using stable isotope methods, we found that the Neotropical jumping spider Psecas chapoda (Salticidae), which lives strictly associated with the terrestrial bromeliad Bromelia balansae, contributed 18% of the total nitrogen of its host plant in a greenhouse experiment. In a one-year field experiment, plants with spiders produced leaves 15…
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