Cargando…

Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests

Urban trees serve a critical conservation function by supporting arthropod and vertebrate communities but are often subject to arthropod pest infestations. Native trees are thought to support richer arthropod communities than exotic trees but may also be more susceptible to herbivorous pests. Exotic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Frank, Steven D., Backe, Kristi M., McDaniel, Casey, Green, Matthew, Widney, Sarah, Dunn, Robert R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6409088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30867988
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6531
_version_ 1783401916989964288
author Frank, Steven D.
Backe, Kristi M.
McDaniel, Casey
Green, Matthew
Widney, Sarah
Dunn, Robert R.
author_facet Frank, Steven D.
Backe, Kristi M.
McDaniel, Casey
Green, Matthew
Widney, Sarah
Dunn, Robert R.
author_sort Frank, Steven D.
collection PubMed
description Urban trees serve a critical conservation function by supporting arthropod and vertebrate communities but are often subject to arthropod pest infestations. Native trees are thought to support richer arthropod communities than exotic trees but may also be more susceptible to herbivorous pests. Exotic trees may be less susceptible to herbivores but provide less conservation value as a consequence. We tested the hypotheses that native species in Acer and Quercus would have more herbivorous pests than exotic congeners and different communities of arthropod natural enemies. The density of scale insects, common urban tree pests, was greatest on a native Acer and a native Quercus than exotic congeners in both years of our research (2012 and 2016) and sometimes reached damaging levels. However, differences in predator and parasitoid abundance, diversity, and communities were not consistent between native and exotic species in either genus and were generally similar. For example, in 2012 neither predator nor parasitoid abundance differed among native and exotic Acer congeners but in 2016 a native species, A. saccharum, had the least of both groups. A native, Q. phellos, had significantly more predators and parasitoids in 2012 than its native and exotic congeners but no differences in 2016. Parasitoid communities were significantly different among Acer species and Quercus species due in each case to greater abundance of a single family on one native tree species. These native and exotic tree species could help conserve arthropod natural enemies and achieve pest management goals.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6409088
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-64090882019-03-13 Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests Frank, Steven D. Backe, Kristi M. McDaniel, Casey Green, Matthew Widney, Sarah Dunn, Robert R. PeerJ Conservation Biology Urban trees serve a critical conservation function by supporting arthropod and vertebrate communities but are often subject to arthropod pest infestations. Native trees are thought to support richer arthropod communities than exotic trees but may also be more susceptible to herbivorous pests. Exotic trees may be less susceptible to herbivores but provide less conservation value as a consequence. We tested the hypotheses that native species in Acer and Quercus would have more herbivorous pests than exotic congeners and different communities of arthropod natural enemies. The density of scale insects, common urban tree pests, was greatest on a native Acer and a native Quercus than exotic congeners in both years of our research (2012 and 2016) and sometimes reached damaging levels. However, differences in predator and parasitoid abundance, diversity, and communities were not consistent between native and exotic species in either genus and were generally similar. For example, in 2012 neither predator nor parasitoid abundance differed among native and exotic Acer congeners but in 2016 a native species, A. saccharum, had the least of both groups. A native, Q. phellos, had significantly more predators and parasitoids in 2012 than its native and exotic congeners but no differences in 2016. Parasitoid communities were significantly different among Acer species and Quercus species due in each case to greater abundance of a single family on one native tree species. These native and exotic tree species could help conserve arthropod natural enemies and achieve pest management goals. PeerJ Inc. 2019-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6409088/ /pubmed/30867988 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6531 Text en © 2019 Frank et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Conservation Biology
Frank, Steven D.
Backe, Kristi M.
McDaniel, Casey
Green, Matthew
Widney, Sarah
Dunn, Robert R.
Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
title Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
title_full Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
title_fullStr Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
title_full_unstemmed Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
title_short Exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
title_sort exotic urban trees conserve similar natural enemy communities to native congeners but have fewer pests
topic Conservation Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6409088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30867988
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6531
work_keys_str_mv AT frankstevend exoticurbantreesconservesimilarnaturalenemycommunitiestonativecongenersbuthavefewerpests
AT backekristim exoticurbantreesconservesimilarnaturalenemycommunitiestonativecongenersbuthavefewerpests
AT mcdanielcasey exoticurbantreesconservesimilarnaturalenemycommunitiestonativecongenersbuthavefewerpests
AT greenmatthew exoticurbantreesconservesimilarnaturalenemycommunitiestonativecongenersbuthavefewerpests
AT widneysarah exoticurbantreesconservesimilarnaturalenemycommunitiestonativecongenersbuthavefewerpests
AT dunnrobertr exoticurbantreesconservesimilarnaturalenemycommunitiestonativecongenersbuthavefewerpests