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Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests

Ontogenetic changes in herbivory are generally not consistent with ontogenetic changes in defensive traits of woody plants. This inconsistency suggests that other factors may affect ontogenetic trajectories in herbivory. We tested the hypothesis that top-down factors contribute to differences in fol...

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Autores principales: Zvereva, Elena L., Paolucci, Lucas N., Kozlov, Mikhail V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7235072/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32314043
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04659-z
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author Zvereva, Elena L.
Paolucci, Lucas N.
Kozlov, Mikhail V.
author_facet Zvereva, Elena L.
Paolucci, Lucas N.
Kozlov, Mikhail V.
author_sort Zvereva, Elena L.
collection PubMed
description Ontogenetic changes in herbivory are generally not consistent with ontogenetic changes in defensive traits of woody plants. This inconsistency suggests that other factors may affect ontogenetic trajectories in herbivory. We tested the hypothesis that top-down factors contribute to differences in foliar losses to insects between juvenile and mature trees in tropical and boreal forests. We used artificial caterpillars made of modelling clay to compare predation rates between saplings and mature trees of two common forest species, Siparuna guianensis in Brazil (tropical site) and Betula pubescens in Finland (boreal site). Leaf area losses to chewing insects in saplings were 2.5-fold higher than in mature trees in both species. Physical plant defences (measured as specific leaf area, SLA) did not differ between saplings and mature trees in the boreal forest, whereas in the tropical forest, SLA was greater in saplings than in mature trees. Attack rates on the model prey by birds were higher in the boreal forest, whereas attack rates by arthropod predators were higher in the tropical forest. Overall, predation rates on model prey were consistently higher on mature trees than on saplings at both sites, but in the boreal site, this pattern was primarily driven by birds, whereas in the tropical site, it was primarily driven by arthropod predators. We conclude that the effect of predation on herbivorous insects may considerably contribute to ontogenetic differences in herbivory, but the relative roles of different predatory groups and of top-down and bottom-up factors may vary between environments.
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spelling pubmed-72350722020-05-20 Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests Zvereva, Elena L. Paolucci, Lucas N. Kozlov, Mikhail V. Oecologia Plant-Microbe-Animal Interactions–Original Research Ontogenetic changes in herbivory are generally not consistent with ontogenetic changes in defensive traits of woody plants. This inconsistency suggests that other factors may affect ontogenetic trajectories in herbivory. We tested the hypothesis that top-down factors contribute to differences in foliar losses to insects between juvenile and mature trees in tropical and boreal forests. We used artificial caterpillars made of modelling clay to compare predation rates between saplings and mature trees of two common forest species, Siparuna guianensis in Brazil (tropical site) and Betula pubescens in Finland (boreal site). Leaf area losses to chewing insects in saplings were 2.5-fold higher than in mature trees in both species. Physical plant defences (measured as specific leaf area, SLA) did not differ between saplings and mature trees in the boreal forest, whereas in the tropical forest, SLA was greater in saplings than in mature trees. Attack rates on the model prey by birds were higher in the boreal forest, whereas attack rates by arthropod predators were higher in the tropical forest. Overall, predation rates on model prey were consistently higher on mature trees than on saplings at both sites, but in the boreal site, this pattern was primarily driven by birds, whereas in the tropical site, it was primarily driven by arthropod predators. We conclude that the effect of predation on herbivorous insects may considerably contribute to ontogenetic differences in herbivory, but the relative roles of different predatory groups and of top-down and bottom-up factors may vary between environments. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-04-20 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7235072/ /pubmed/32314043 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04659-z Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Plant-Microbe-Animal Interactions–Original Research
Zvereva, Elena L.
Paolucci, Lucas N.
Kozlov, Mikhail V.
Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
title Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
title_full Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
title_fullStr Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
title_full_unstemmed Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
title_short Top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
title_sort top-down factors contribute to differences in insect herbivory between saplings and mature trees in boreal and tropical forests
topic Plant-Microbe-Animal Interactions–Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7235072/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32314043
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04659-z
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