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keystone species come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes appearances can be deceptive not only could a species with a huge impact initially seem to be quite insignificant it could even be mistaken as harmful last time we looked into European flat oysters in Scotland but today we're all the way over in Ecuador to look at a species that couldn't be more different of course in a place like the Amazon there are countless species we could talk about but we'll save all the charismatic Birds snakes monkeys and frogs for another time because here we have a tree killer this is the shortleaf Fig known locally as the matapalo but you may know it by a common name it shares with several other fig species
the Strangler fig while I'm still at home in the UK dwart has been busy filming a series of videos at our project site in Ecuador those will start releasing soon but for now we have someone on location so to continue our conversation about keystone species I want to introduce you to a rather unexpected one and that is the Strangler fig and I know we're next to a house but this was a particularly striking individual I needed to show you this because you can see essentially the Palm is being completely enveloped by the Strangler fig and this will eventually kill the tree it will kill the palm tree but it so happens that the Strangler fig is a keystone species it's really important in its ecosystem and it
supports a wide variety of species so in this video today we want to explore that a bit further this plant is a Hemi epiy it starts its life high up in the canopy of a host tree and grows up towards the light while growing its roots downwards either along the host tree trunk or through the air eventually these aerial Roots make contact with the soil rapidly growing into the ground and rooting the Fig to the rainforest floor while the roots expand and thicken to become more like interweaving tree trunks this method of growing allows the Fig to avoid the harsh competition for sunlight space and nutrients on the rainforest floor instead taking advantage of a tree that already won that battle as it grows
over time it will completely encircle and constrict the host tree preventing the main trunk from expanding the leaves of the Fig will also be out competing the host tre's foliage while this happens ultimately resulting in the Fig cutting off its host supply of nutrients and killing it the host tree then decays providing nutrients for the Fig Tree in a notoriously poor rainforest soil it's pretty easy to see where it got its more Sinister name from it's a killer tree Hills trees so here you can see the one of the reasons why the matapalo is considered a kyone species you can see all of this fruit around us and all the little fruit flies that are here as well and Freddy was saying that maybe you can explain for you with the yeah
the matapalo it's strle fix people think it's bad because it's killing other trees but if you look from another site it is important because it's providing food for many animals and birds especially birds and bats as well you know look you can see hundreds of tiny seeds can be e of the birds when the birds make poop on somewhere sitting on the main tall trees matalo will start to grow there so that's how they spread around yeah but then that's also really nice because they're you know so they kill some trees but they also provide food for so many animals so they're really important species really important and it's what kind of animals would be eating this oh Tu and tanagers and scooter monkeys and all monkeys
let me say and parrots and on the ground I mean uh rodents like uh W Baka you know and here also the fruit flies as well yeah globally fig species are known to feed over 1,200 vertebrate species and N matapalo is no exception this species fruits year round and provides a hugely important food source for many fruit eating species especially when other fruiting trees aren't in season and food is more scarce without this food source the rainforest frugivore populations would likely plummet and as other fruiting plants rely on those species for seed dispersal you could definitely argue that they too rely on the Fig to thrive this means that the Fig supports far more trees than it kills just because it produces its fruit at
different times and the reason for this unusual fruiting pattern is because of the Fig's peculiar pollination method like all figs this tree has a mutualistic relationship with a local species of fig wasp in this case this Latin name that I can definitely pronounce but choose not to rather than the usual flowers you might imagine figs produce ponia which in a heavily simplified sense for the purposes of this video are like an inverted fruit slf flour that technically contains multiple tiny flowers the only way for a pollinator to access the flowers within the pyonium is to squeeze through the Osteo which is basically an interlocking entrance that loosens slightly when ready to be pollinated each species of
fig has its own species of fig Wasp that's uniquely able to get through the osto however despite only being a few millimeters long and well adapted for the purpose it's still a tight fit and they'll typically lose their wings and antenna in the process some species of fig wasps even bite their own limbs off to get through and it's quite common to find dead wasps stuck partway through the Osteo but this risk is worth it as the WASP relies in entirely on these fruits throughout its life cycle this wasp and the matapalo are completely dependent on each other and this method of pollination is exactly why the fig trees flower and fruit asynchronously while other fruiting species don't the
wasps have very short lifespans so if there weren't any trees ready to receive the Wasps when they emerge the pollinator wasps would quickly go extinct locally and the Fig Tree in turn wouldn't be able to reproduce at all stages of their lives these wasps are also prayed upon by numerous insector species that would lose a food source without the Fig Tree so could you call this tiny wasp that doesn't even have a common name a keystone species in turn since they're mutually dependent you could definitely make an argument that the WASP is responsible for the impact of the Fig as much as the Fig is responsible for the wasp's impact this is just one of many examples of how complex ecosystems are and the limitations of terms like these but I'm
supposed to be talking about a tree here and I've probably derailed this enough of course like any tree the Fig provides a habitat for a huge variety of species but when the Fig does kill its host its impact only continues to expand the dead host will rot away supporting species that rely on Deadwood in the process and once it's gone the Fig Tree will continue to stand and grow with its interweaving and now Hollow trunk providing the perfect hiding and nesting spots for many species in the rainforest out of all of this the only loser seems to be the host tree of the Fig and while that's definitely true there have been some studies that suggest trees with Strangler figs growing around them are
more stable during storms and less likely to be uprooted I'm not sure how much of a comfort that would be while slowly being starved of nutrients but it's a very thin silver lining for the host at least of course the Fig is still far from a desirable lodger which has led to several species developing some interesting adaptations to keep them off you can see the little hole coming out and the acrop Tre basically it's keep clear nothing is growing on the trunk because they have a symbiotic relation with a little yellow ant they kill any other plants growing on the on the copia and that's why sopia is providing home you know it's like a little apartment they living you can see little when it dry look at this they
live in inside and decompos so quick so this tree is also a pretty interesting one that uh Freddy showed us and what it does here essentially is every year it essentially sheds its spk to avoid any other vines or plants or animals of climbing on it and it gets this like really smooth uh trunk in the end so it looks quite unusual and it looks like you know it's lost its gloves and it's CL just fallen down just like that when hearing that this tree kills other trees you might assume that the species has a negative impact on this environment but ultimately the Strangler fig directly supports hundreds if not thousands of species in this ecosystem as both a source of food and as a habitat it's safe to say that if it were to go extinct you'd also see a vast ripple
effect of other extinctions but fortunately this tree is listed as least concern and is about as safe as a species possibly can be however instead this entire ecosystem is what needs protecting I'm sure you don't need reminding about the extent of deforestation in the Amazon and the need to protect it and its amazing biodiversity but that's exactly why we're here thanks to the support and funding of our members we purchased a rainforest in ecor back in August 2023 which protects around 200 hectares the land was purchased under the advice and management of Freddy our new colleague who spoke earlier in the video he's spearheading all of the work we're undertaking here and as someone from the Amazon who's dedicated his life to
protecting this rainforest it couldn't be in better hands next up in this series we'll be heading to Portugal where we'll find a misunderstood keystone species that's become synonymous with death thank you for watching and until next time cheers
