UCB Moorea Class: Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands

Plant-insect symbiosis and succession are important components of tropical ecosystems for understanding natural history and biodiversity. There are not many studies of gall succession and gall life cycles in tropical environments, even though it is an important component of tropical ecology. A number of gall specimens onSyzygium malaccense were followed over time, sampled for insect communities, and tested for areas of fungal coverage to determine if they underwent successional development and caused leaf decay outside the gall boundaries. Different gall stages were classified over this time period and were found to contain different communities. Desiccation and decay were found to cause gall color change, and the decay was limited to the gall boundaries avoiding theS. malaccense leaf.Syzygium malaccense galls were thus found to model succession, and also present a unique symbiotic system amongst a diverse set of tropical organisms.