COMMUNITY ECOLOGY - ORIGINAL RESEARCH Genetic effects of tank-forming bromeliads on the associated invertebrate community in a tropical forest ecosystem Sharon E. Zytynska • Mouhammad Shadi Khudr • Edwin Harris • Richard F. Preziosi Received: 3 November 2011 / Accepted: 13 March 2012 / Published online: 31 March 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract Within the area of community genetics there is an expanding volume of literature demonstrating how within-species genetic variation in temperate trees can have important effects on structuring animal and plant commu- nities. The influence of intraspecific genetic variation on associated communities in relatively more complex eco- systems is only starting to be appreciated. Within tropical forests, epiphytic bromeliad plants often grow high in the canopy and create unique nutrient-rich microhabitats on which many invertebrate and vertebrate species depend. We investigated the influence of within-species genetic variation in the bromeliad Aechmea bracteata on the invertebrate microhabitat community. We found that more genetically similar bromeliad plants were host to more similar commu- nities of juvenile-stage invertebrates, but not adult inverte- brates. We discuss possible mechanisms for this, including differential survival and active female oviposition choice. Our work shows that the impact of within-species genetic variation on associated ecological communities may be more general than previously considered. These results agree with recent research suggesting that within-species genetic variation may perform a supporting ecosystem service for maintaining community and ecological processes. Keywords Genetic interactions  Species interactions  Ecosystem conservation  AFLP Introduction Determining the importance of within-species genetic variation on ecosystem processes and function is a funda- mental question in ecology and conservation biology. Biodiversity within an ecosystem consists of multiple levels of diversity including genetic, species, functional group, and community levels. Within-species genetic var- iation provides a basis for adaptation of a population to long-term change in an environment, and can buffer sto- chastic events reducing the chance of random extinction (Vellend and Geber 2005; Reusch et al. 2005). Recent conservation efforts have placed emphasis on the delivery of ecosystem goods and services and conjecture the importance of supporting ecosystem services, such as genetic variation, as they can be tightly linked with the maintenance of ecosystem function (Luck et al. 2003; Hooper et al. 2005). In addition, interactions between dif- ferent species are integral to the functioning of an eco- system, for example predator–prey (Ives et al. 2005) or host–pathogen relationships (Dobson and Crawley 1994). These interactions between species can be mediated by within-species genetic variation, such that the outcome of an interaction depends on the genotypic identity of both the interacting individuals (Service 1984). This has coevolu- tionary implications for those involved in such interactions (Carius et al. 2001), and can affect organisms across complex trophic interactions (Zytynska et al. 2010). Communicated by Jason Tylianakis. S. E. Zytynska (&)  M. S. Khudr  R. F. Preziosi Faculty of Life Sciences, Michael Smith Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK e-mail: sharon.zytynska@tum.de Present Address: S. E. Zytynska Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technische Universita ¨t Mu ¨nchen, Freising, Germany E. Harris John Dalton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UK 123 Oecologia (2012) 170:467–475 DOI 10.1007/s00442-012-2310-3