XVI International Botanical Congess
We estimated the effect of fragmentation on leaf fungal infection and its interaction with herbivores. Seedlings of three species were transplanted in continuous forest, 100, 10, and 1ha fragments. We estimated the levels of different types of leaf damage: herbivory, fungi surrounding herbivory injuries, fungi not surrounding herbivory injuries, and fungi alone. The main type of damage was herbivory. Herbivory and fungal infection differed among fragments in Chrysophyllum pomiferum and Micropholis venulosa, but differences were not related to fragment size. Pouteria caimito and C. pomiferum had higher levels of infection by fungi surrounding herbivory injuries in continuous forest than in any other fragment which suggests that the interaction of seedlings with herbivores and fungi may be affected by fragmentation.