Tropical trees of the same species avoid 'enemies' such as insects and fungal pathogens by growing far apart from each other
Tropical forests are often made up of a diverse range of trees, with large spaces between those of the same species, which probably helps to protect them against pests, such as insects and fungal pathogens. Better understanding the make-up of these forests could help us conserve them.
“Enemy species, like insect herbivores and fungal pathogens, are specialised to different tree species,” saysat the University of Texas at Austin. It is much easier for these to travel from one tree to another when the same type of trees are close together, she says. For example, insects can attack nearby seedlings of the same kind by dropping from a colony on a tree, while fungal pathogens can transmit from one tree to another of the same species not far away via water splashes.
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