Dr. Todd Palmer is lead author on a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing how multiple species of ants interact with acacia trees over time. By following 1,750 trees over eight years, he and his co-authors showed that acacias have a better chance of survival if they are protected by all four species of ants through the years. However, each ant species doesn’t seem to provide many short-term benefits to the plant. To read the full paper (Open Access) click on “more”.