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100 results for “insect herbivory”

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dryad36/100

Effect of water availability on volatile-mediated communication between potato plants in response to insect herbivory

Airborne plant communication is a widespread phenomenon in which volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from damaged plants boost herbivore resistance in neighbouring, undamaged plants. Although this form of plant signalling has been reported in more than 30 plant species, there is still a considerable knowledge gap on how abiotic factors (e.g., water availability) alter its outcomes. We performed a greenhouse experiment to test for communication between potato plants (Solanum tuberosum) in response to herbivory by the generalist insect Spodoptera exigua and whether communication was affected by water availability. We paired emitter and receiver potato plants, with half of the emitters damaged by S. exigua larvae and half serving as undamaged controls. Both emitter and receiver plants were subjected to one of two water availability treatments: high (i.e., well-watered) vs. low (i.e., reduced watering) availability, thus effectively teasing apart water availability effects on the emission and reception components of signalling. After four days of herbivore feeding, we collected emitter VOCs and receivers were subjected to feeding by S. exigua to test for effects of signalling on induced resistance. Herbivory by S. exigua led to increased VOCs emissions as well as changes in VOCs composition in emitter plants. Furthermore, emitters subjected to low water availability exhibited a weaker induction of VOCs in response to herbivory relative to well-watered emitters. Results from the feeding bioassay indicated that receivers exposed to VOCs from herbivore-induced emitters showed lower S. exigua damage (i.e. higher induced resistance) compared to receivers exposed to undamaged emitters. However, we did not observe a significant effect of water availability in either emitters or receivers on plant communication. Overall, our study contributes to the understanding of how the abiotic context affects plant communication by providing evidence of water availability effects on the induction of VOCs that may act as airborne signals between plants. The observed changes in induced VOCs had no visible consequences for plant communication. These findings thus suggest that the induction of key compounds mediating communication was not compromised by our experimental conditions.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

zenodo36/100

Low-intensity insect herbivory could have large effects on ecosystem productivity through reduced canopy photosynthesis. R code and data.

R code and data to reproduce analysis in the publication: Visakorpi K., Gripenberg S., Malhi Y. and Riutta T. Low-intensity insect herbivory could have large effects on ecosystem productivity through reduced canopy photosynthesis. Web Ecology, 2024.   File named "Visakorpietal2024_litteratureSurvey.csv" contains data collected from literature survey and to perform a meta-analysis. The columns contain the following data: Reference = unique identifier for each study group_id = if a study described several experiments or treatments, this column identifies them from each other. Plant_species = name of the plant species studied Herbivore_species = name of the herbivore species studies Plant_species_phylo and Plant_species_phylo2 = alternative ways to write the plant species name for phylogenetic analysis Plant_clade = Angiosperm or Gymnosperm Growth_form = seedling, sapling or tree Herbivore_order = phylogenetic order of the herbivore species Herbivore_family = phylogenetic family of the herbivore species Type_of_herbivory = chewing, sap-sucking, root-feeding, leafmining or bark-feeding Leaf_type = whether the leaf that was measured was damaged by herbivores, or intact Manipulation = whether herbivores were added (A) or removed (R) Year_published = year when the study was published PN_herb, SD_herb, se_herb, n_herb = photosynthetic rate, standard deviation, standard error, and sample size, of the treatment group (i.e. experiencing herbivory) PN_intact, SD_intact, se_intact, n_intact = photosynthetic rate, standard deviation, standard error, and sample size, of the control group (i.e. not experiencing herbivory) Indirect_effect, SD_indirect = the proportional difference in photosynthetic rates between the treatment and control values, and the standard deviation of the proportional difference

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2024View details →

dryad36/100

Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains

Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one important source of this variation, but the acute shortage of data from polar mountains hampers exploration of latitude effects on elevational changes in herbivory. Here, we reduce this knowledge gap by testing the prediction that a decrease in herbivory occurs with increasing elevation from forest to alpine tundra. We examined six elevation gradients located in three Arctic mountain ranges. Across the ten most abundant evergreen and deciduous woody plant species, relative losses of foliage to insect herbivores were 2.2-fold greater at the highest elevations (alpine tundra) than in mid-elevation birch woodlands or low elevation coniferous forests. Plant quality for herbivores (quantified by specific leaf area) significantly decreased with elevation across all studied species, indicating that bottom-up factors were unlikely to shape the observed pattern in herbivory. An experiment with open-top chambers established at different elevations showed that even a slight increase in ambient temperature enhances herbivory in Arctic mountains. Therefore, we suggest that the discovered increase in herbivory with elevation is explained by higher temperatures at the soil surface in open habitats above the treeline compared with forests at lower elevations. This explanation is supported by the significant difference in elevational changes in herbivory between low and tall plants: herbivory on low shrubs increased 4-fold from forest to alpine sites, while herbivory on trees and tall shrubs did not change with elevation. We suggest that an increase in herbivory with an increase in elevation is typical for high-latitude mountains, where inverse temperature gradients, especially at the soil surface, are common. Verification of this hypothesis requires further studies of elevational patterns in herbivory at high latitudes.

opencc-zeroJan 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data for: Elevational changes in insect herbivory on woody plants in six mountain ranges of temperate Eurasia: Sources of variation

Current theory predicts that the intensity of biotic interactions, and particularly herbivory, decreases with increasing latitude and elevation. However, recent studies have revealed substantial variation in both the latitudinal and elevational patterns of herbivory. This variation is often attributed to differences in study design and type of data collected by different researchers. Here, we used a standardised sampling protocol along elevational gradients in six mountain ranges, located at different latitudes within temperate Eurasia, to uncover the sources of variation in elevational patterns in insect herbivory on woody plant leaves. We discovered the considerable variation in elevational patterns among different mountain ranges; nevertheless, herbivory generally decreased with increasing elevation at both the community-wide and individual plant species levels. This decrease was mostly due to openly living defoliators, whereas no significant association was detected between herbivory and elevation among insects living within plant tissues (i.e. miners and gallers). The elevational decrease in herbivory was significant for deciduous plants but not for evergreen plants, and for low-stature plants but not for tall plants. The community-wide herbivory increased with increases in both specific leaf area and leaf size. The strength of the negative correlation between herbivory and elevation increased from lower to higher latitudes. We conclude that elevational gradients in herbivory demonstrate considerable variation, and that this variation is mostly associated with herbivore feeding habit, some plant traits and latitude of the mountain range.

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Effects of tree species diversity and conspecific seedling density on insect herbivory and pathogen infection on big-leaf mahogany seedlings

The Janzen-Connell Hypothesis (JCH) predicts that attack by specialist enemies on seedlings increases with conspecific seedling density, but studies have rarely experimentally tested for the contingency of such effects on tree community context (e.g., diversity, composition) and measured responses by different enemies (e.g. herbivores, pathogens). We conducted a field study in a large-scale system evaluating tree species diversity and conspecific density effects on leaf damage on mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) seedlings. We established quadrats of eight levels of seedling density across mahogany tree monocultures and species polycultures including mahogany, and recorded percent leaf damage by insects and percent leaf necrosis by a pathogenic fungus on mahogany seedlings. We found contrasting effects of tree species diversity on insects and pathogens. Whereas diversity did not affect leaf damage by insects, it had a significant negative effect on leaf necrosis by pathogens. On average, percent leaf necrosis on mahogany seedlings in polyculture was half of that observed in monoculture. We discuss the potential influences of changes in mahogany tree density vs. frequency (relative to other tree species) driving this diversity effect. Unexpectedly, we found no effect of seedling conspecific density on either leaf insect or pathogen damage (i.e., density-independent attack). Likewise, we found no significant tree diversity by seedling density interaction, indicating that attackers were consistently unresponsive to variation in seedling density across two levels of tree diversity. Overall, this study provides a unique test of the JCH by experimentally evaluating seedling density and tree diversity effects on contrasting plant enemies, shedding light on enemy controls over plant recruitment.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

dryad36/100