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1,187 results for “herbivores”

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Data from: Evaluation of plant contamination in metabarcoding diet analysis of a herbivore

Fecal DNA metabarcoding is currently used in various fields of ecology to determine animal diets. Contamination of non-food DNA from complex field environments is a considerable challenge to the reliability of this method but has rarely been quantified. We evaluated plant DNA contamination by sequencing the chloroplast trnL P6 loop region from food-controlled geese feces. The average percentage of contaminant sequences per sample was 1.86%. According to the results of generalized linear models, the probability of contamination was highest in samples placed in wet soil. The proportion of contaminant sequences was lowest at the earliest sampling point and was slightly higher in samples placed in open conditions. Exclusion of rare OTUs (operational taxonomic units) was effective for obtaining reliable dietary data from the obtained sequences, and a 1% cutoff reduced the percentage of contaminated samples to less than 30%. However, appropriate interpretation of the barcoding results considering inevitable contamination is an important issue to address. We suggest the following procedures for fecal sampling and sequence data treatment to increase the reliability of DNA metabarcoding diet analyses: (i) Collect samples as soon as possible after deposition, (ii) avoid samples from deposits on wet soil, and (iii) exclude rare OTUs from diet composition estimations.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

dryad24/100

Data from: Contrasting effects of specialist and generalist herbivores on resistance evolution in invasive plants

Invasive alien plants are likely to be released from specialist herbivores and at the same time encounter biotic resistance from resident generalist herbivores in their new ranges. The Shifting Defense Hypothesis predicts that this will result in evolution of decreased defense against specialist herbivores and increased defense against generalist herbivores. To test this, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis of 61 common garden studies that provide data on resistance and/or tolerance for both introduced and native populations of 32 invasive plant species. We demonstrate that introduced populations, relative to native populations, decreased their resistance against specialists, and increased their resistance against generalists. These differences were significant when resistance was measured in terms of damage caused by the herbivore, but not in terms of performance of the herbivore. Furthermore, we found the first evidence that the magnitude of resistance differences between introduced and native populations depended significantly on herbivore origin (i.e. whether the test herbivore was collected from the native or non-native range of the invasive plant). Finally, tolerance to generalists was found to be higher in introduced populations, while neither tolerance to specialists nor that to simulated herbivory differed between introduced and native plant populations. We conclude that enemy release from specialist herbivores and biotic resistance from generalist herbivores have contrasting effects on resistance evolution in invasive plants. Our results thus provide strong support for the Shifting Defense Hypothesis.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

dryad24/100

Species specific plant-mediated effects between herbivores converge at high damage intensity

Plants are often exposed to multiple herbivores and densities of these attackers (or corresponding damage intensities) generally fluctuate greatly in the field. Plant-mediated interactions vary among herbivore species and with changing feeding intensity, but little is known about how herbivore identity and density interact to determine plant responses and herbivore fitness. Here, we investigated this question using Triadica sebifera (tallow) and its two major specialist insect herbivores, Bikasha collaris (flea beetle) and Heterapoderopsis bicallosicollis (weevil). By manipulating densities of leaf-feeding adults of these two insects, we tested how variations in the intensity of leaf damage caused by flea beetle or weevil adults affected the performance of root-feeding flea beetle larvae and evaluated the potential of changed traits of tallow root as predictions of flea beetle larval performance. We found that weevil adults consistently decreased the survival of flea beetle larvae with increasing leaf damage intensities. In contrast, conspecific flea beetle adults increased their larval survival at low damage then decreased larval survival at high damage, resulting in a unimodal pattern. Chemical analyses showed that increasing leaf damage from weevil adults linearly decreased root carbohydrates and increased root tannin, whereas flea beetle adults had opposite effects as weevil adults at low damage and similar effects as them at high damage. Furthermore, across all feeding treatments, flea beetle larval survival was positively correlated with concentrations of carbohydrates and negatively correlated with concentration of tannin, suggesting that root primary and secondary metabolism might underlie observed effects on flea beetle larvae. Our study demonstrates that herbivore identity and density interact to determine systemic plant responses and plant-mediated effects on herbivores. In particular, effects are species specific at low densities, but converge at high densities. These findings emphasize the importance of considering herbivore identity and density simultaneously when identifying factors driving plant-mediated interactions between herbivores, advancing our understanding of the structure and composition of herbivore communities and terrestrial food-webs.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

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Data from: Herbivore-induced volatiles induce increases in net photosynthesis and reduce plant susceptibility to oviposition in wild and cultivated plants

Despite the growing body of studies demonstrating that herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPV) induce and prime receiver plant defences, few studies have investigated the effect of HIPVs on primary metabolism of receiver plants and whether responses to HIPVs are consistent across wild and cultivated plant varieties. Here we investigated the effect of HIPVs on net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, volatile emissions, and number of eggs laid by female Plutella xylostella on receiver plants in two wild and two cultivated Brassica rapa varieties. Plants responded to exposure to HIPVs by increasing their net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. Responses were clearest in two varieties i.e., Cordelia and a wild Moroccan population, for which exposure to HIPVs also reduced their susceptibility to oviposition but did not alter volatile emissions. The results constitute an advance to research on plant-plant interactions by showing that exposure to HIPVs can promote plant primary metabolism by increasing photosynthesis as a probable mechanism to compensate for costs of induced defences. The results also suggest that responses to HIPVs is maintained across wild and cultivated plants but varies among varieties, and that the traits responsible for effective plant-plant interaction might not have been affected by breeding.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

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