BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//ZContent.net//ZapCalLib 1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Mutualism in a community context: ants, plants and elephants in Eas
 t Africa
LOCATION:Anatomy/Zoology Building W118
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20120201T000000
UID:2026-05-13-07-39-28@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260513T073928
Description:Throughout many East African savannas\, the ant-plant Acacia dr
 epanolobium is found in association with several species of symbiotic acac
 ia ants. Although described as a classic example of protective mutualism\,
  our recent investigations into the costs and benefits of this association
  have shown that ants are ineffective defenders against many types of herb
 ivores\, and impose demographic costs that outweigh benefits over a 5-year
  period.  So are these ant symbionts parasites\, or are we missing someth
 ing? In this talk\, I’ll outline some recent results that suggest that w
 hat we’ve been missing is elephants. These massive herbivores impose cat
 astrophic but rare damage to acacia trees\, and our data suggest that ants
  serve as an expensive “insurance policy” against these agents of stro
 ng selection. But the story doesn’t end there\, because even mutually be
 neficial relations may belie underlying conflicts of interest between mutu
 alist partners. I’ll wrap up the talk with some very recent unpublished 
 data suggesting that ants may have the upper hand in this mutualism\, achi
 eving colony densities that are higher than optimal for host plants. 4:00 
 pm
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR