Leaf traits linked to structure and palatability drive plant-insect interactions within three forested ecosystems.

Autor: Azevedo-Schmidt L; Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA.; Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.; Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA., Currano ED; Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.; Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: American journal of botany [Am J Bot] 2024 Jan; Vol. 111 (1), pp. e16263. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 14.
DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16263
Abstrakt: Premise: Plant traits and insect herbivory have been highly studied within the modern record but only to a limited extent within the paleontological. Preservation influences what can be measured within the fossil record, but modern methods are also not compatible with paleobotanical methods. To remedy this knowledge gap, a comparable framework was created here using modern and paleobotanical methods, allowing for future comparisons within the fossil record.
Methods: Insect feeding damage on selected tree species at Harvard Forest, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and La Selva were characterized using the damage type system prevalent within paleobotanical studies and compared with leaf traits. Linear models and random forest analyses tested the influence of leaf traits on total, specialized, gall, and mine frequency and diversity.
Results: Structural traits like leaf dry mass per area and palatability traits, including lignin and phosphorus concentrations, are important variables affecting gall and mine damage. The significance and strength of trait-herbivory relationships varied across forest types, which is likely driven by differences in local insect populations.
Conclusions: This work addresses the persistent gap between modern and paleoecological studies focusing on the influence of leaf traits on insect herbivory. This is important as modern climate change alters our understanding of plant-insect interactions, providing a need for contextualizing these relationships within evolutionary time. The fossil record provides information on terrestrial response to past climatic events and, thus, should be implemented when considering how to preserve biodiversity under current and future global change.
(© 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Botany published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Botanical Society of America.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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