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Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities

In tropical forests, herbivorous arthropods remove between 7% up to 48% of leaf area, which has forced plants to evolve defense strategies. These strategies influence the palatability of leaves. Palatability, which reflects a syndrome of leaf traits, in turn influences both the abundance and the mea...

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Autores principales: Schön, Jana E., Tiede, Yvonne, Becker, Marcel, Donoso, David A., Homeier, Jürgen, Limberger, Oliver, Bendix, Jörg, Farwig, Nina, Brandl, Roland
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10629635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37934765
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288276
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author Schön, Jana E.
Tiede, Yvonne
Becker, Marcel
Donoso, David A.
Homeier, Jürgen
Limberger, Oliver
Bendix, Jörg
Farwig, Nina
Brandl, Roland
author_facet Schön, Jana E.
Tiede, Yvonne
Becker, Marcel
Donoso, David A.
Homeier, Jürgen
Limberger, Oliver
Bendix, Jörg
Farwig, Nina
Brandl, Roland
author_sort Schön, Jana E.
collection PubMed
description In tropical forests, herbivorous arthropods remove between 7% up to 48% of leaf area, which has forced plants to evolve defense strategies. These strategies influence the palatability of leaves. Palatability, which reflects a syndrome of leaf traits, in turn influences both the abundance and the mean body mass not only of particular arthropod taxa but also of the total communities. In this study, we tested two hypotheses: (H1) The abundance of two important chewer guilds (‘leaf chewers’ and ‘rostrum chewers’), dominant components of arthropod communities, is positively related to the palatability of host trees. (H2) Lower palatability leads to an increased mean body mass of chewers (Jarman-Bell principle). Arthropods were collected by fogging the canopies of 90 tropical trees representing 31 species in three plots at 1000 m and three at 2000 m a.s.l. Palatability was assessed by measuring several ‘leaf traits’ of each host tree and by conducting a feeding trial with the generalist herbivore Gryllus assimilis (Orthoptera, Gryllidae). Leaf traits provided partial support for H1, as abundance of leaf chewers but not of rostrum chewers was positively affected by the experimentally estimated palatability. There was no support for H2 as neither leaf traits nor experimentally estimated palatability affected the mean body mass of leaf chewers. The mean body mass of rostrum chewers was positively related to palatability. Thus, leaf traits and experimentally estimated palatability influenced the abundance and mean body mass of chewing arthropods on the community level. However, the data were not consistent with the Jarman-Bell principle. Overall, our results suggest that the palatability of leaves is not among the dominant factors influencing abundance and mean body mass of the community of chewing arthropod herbivores. If other factors, such as the microclimate, predation or further (a-)biotic interactions are more important has to be analyzed in refined studies.
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spelling pubmed-106296352023-11-08 Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities Schön, Jana E. Tiede, Yvonne Becker, Marcel Donoso, David A. Homeier, Jürgen Limberger, Oliver Bendix, Jörg Farwig, Nina Brandl, Roland PLoS One Research Article In tropical forests, herbivorous arthropods remove between 7% up to 48% of leaf area, which has forced plants to evolve defense strategies. These strategies influence the palatability of leaves. Palatability, which reflects a syndrome of leaf traits, in turn influences both the abundance and the mean body mass not only of particular arthropod taxa but also of the total communities. In this study, we tested two hypotheses: (H1) The abundance of two important chewer guilds (‘leaf chewers’ and ‘rostrum chewers’), dominant components of arthropod communities, is positively related to the palatability of host trees. (H2) Lower palatability leads to an increased mean body mass of chewers (Jarman-Bell principle). Arthropods were collected by fogging the canopies of 90 tropical trees representing 31 species in three plots at 1000 m and three at 2000 m a.s.l. Palatability was assessed by measuring several ‘leaf traits’ of each host tree and by conducting a feeding trial with the generalist herbivore Gryllus assimilis (Orthoptera, Gryllidae). Leaf traits provided partial support for H1, as abundance of leaf chewers but not of rostrum chewers was positively affected by the experimentally estimated palatability. There was no support for H2 as neither leaf traits nor experimentally estimated palatability affected the mean body mass of leaf chewers. The mean body mass of rostrum chewers was positively related to palatability. Thus, leaf traits and experimentally estimated palatability influenced the abundance and mean body mass of chewing arthropods on the community level. However, the data were not consistent with the Jarman-Bell principle. Overall, our results suggest that the palatability of leaves is not among the dominant factors influencing abundance and mean body mass of the community of chewing arthropod herbivores. If other factors, such as the microclimate, predation or further (a-)biotic interactions are more important has to be analyzed in refined studies. Public Library of Science 2023-11-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10629635/ /pubmed/37934765 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288276 Text en © 2023 Schön et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schön, Jana E.
Tiede, Yvonne
Becker, Marcel
Donoso, David A.
Homeier, Jürgen
Limberger, Oliver
Bendix, Jörg
Farwig, Nina
Brandl, Roland
Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
title Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
title_full Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
title_fullStr Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
title_full_unstemmed Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
title_short Effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
title_sort effects of leaf traits of tropical trees on the abundance and body mass of herbivorous arthropod communities
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10629635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37934765
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288276
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