When Fig Wasps Can’t Take the Heat

There are more than 700 species of wild fig in the tropics. Remarkably, most can be pollinated only by a unique species of fig wasp. In turn, the wasps rely on fig plants as hosts for their eggs. Neither species can survive without the other, a relationship known as obligate mutualism. Now a new study  from equatorial Singapore, in the journal Biology Letters, finds that the wasps are very vulnerable to climate change meaning that the wild fig plants are, too. And that is ominous news for many other species, the researchers say. “Figs are a very important food resource in the ecosystem,” said an author.

Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/science/fig-wasps-crucial-tropical-pollinators-face-a-climate-threat.html?ref=weather