Effect of patch size and plant density of Paterson"s curse ( Echium plantagineum ) on the oviposition of a specialist weevil, Mogulones larvatus

Shea, Katriona; Smyth, Matthew; Sheppard, Andy; Morton, Richard; Chalimbaud, Julien

doi:10.1007/s004420000425

Cited by 29 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Echium plantagineum is insect pollinated and can produce up to 10,000 seeds with seed production of up to 30,000 per m 2 . Seeds are dispersed via water, contaminated fodder, garden waste, animal fur and the alimentary tracts of birds or grazing animals [54],[55], and while some seeds can remain dormant in the soil for up to ten years [55],[56], most germinate more rapidly [51]. Seedlings most effectively colonise bare ground [57] and can have recruitment rates of >1,000 m −2 [56].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seeds are dispersed via water, contaminated fodder, garden waste, animal fur and the alimentary tracts of birds or grazing animals [54],[55], and while some seeds can remain dormant in the soil for up to ten years [55],[56], most germinate more rapidly [51]. Seedlings most effectively colonise bare ground [57] and can have recruitment rates of >1,000 m −2 [56]. In annual species like E. plantagineum frequent seed production is a critical driver of population fitness, making it an ideal model species for studies of adaptive capacity and evolutionary responses of seed-related traits in response to broad-scale climatic variation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid Development of Adaptive, Climate-Driven Clinal Variation in Seed Mass in the Invasive Annual Forb Echium plantagineum L.

2012

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We examined adaptive clinal variation in seed mass among populations of an invasive annual species, Echium plantagineum, in response to climatic selection. We collected seeds from 34 field populations from a 1,000 km long temperature and rainfall gradient across the species' introduced range in south-eastern Australia. Seeds were germinated, grown to reproductive age under common glasshouse conditions, and progeny seeds were harvested and weighed. Analyses showed that seed mass was significantly related to climatic factors, with populations sourced from hotter, more arid sites producing heavier seeds than populations from cooler and wetter sites. Seed mass was not related to edaphic factors. We also found that seed mass was significantly related to both longitude and latitude with each degree of longitude west and latitude north increasing seed mass by around 2.5% and 4% on average. There was little evidence that within-population or between-population variation in seed mass varied in a systematic manner across the study region. Our findings provide compelling evidence for development of a strong cline in seed mass across the geographic range of a widespread and highly successful invasive annual forb. Since large seed mass is known to provide reproductive assurance for plants in arid environments, our results support the hypothesis that the fitness and range potential of invasive species can increase as a result of genetic divergence of populations along broad climatic gradients. In E. plantagineum population-level differentiation has occurred in 150 years or less, indicating that the adaptation process can be rapid.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid Development of Adaptive, Climate-Driven Clinal Variation in Seed Mass in the Invasive Annual Forb Echium plantagineum L.

2012

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“…Our interest in clutch size stems from the possibility that females might adjust clutch sizes as an adaptive response to variation in host plant density (laying fewer, larger clutches to avoid travel costs when plants are rare ;Heard 1998;Shea et al 2000). Previous suggestions about the effects of such behaviour on the stability of exploitative systems have been contradictory (compare Hassell 1980;Taylor 1988;Cronin and Strong 1999), and ours is the first model to address these effects explicitly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Travel costs, oviposition behaviour and the dynamics of insect–plant systems

Heard

Remer

2008

Theor Ecol

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Insect attack can have major consequences for plant population dynamics. We used individually based simulation models to ask how insect oviposition behaviour influences persistence and potential stability of an herbivoreplant system. We emphasised effects on system dynamics of herbivore travel costs and of two kinds of behaviour that might evolve to mitigate travel costs: insect clutch size behaviour (whether eggs are laid singly or in groups) and female aggregation behaviour (whether females prefer or avoid plants already bearing eggs). Travel costs that increase as plant populations drop lead to inverse density dependence of plant reproduction under herbivore attack. Female clutch size and aggregation behaviours also strongly affect system dynamics. When females lay eggs in large clutches or aggregate their clutches, herbivore damage varies strongly among plants, providing probabilistic refuges that permit plant reproduction and persistence. However, the population dynamics depend strongly on whether insect behaviour is fixed or responds adaptively to plant population size: when (and only when) females increase clutch size or aggregation as plants become rare, refuges from herbivory weaken at high plant density, creating inverse density dependence in plant reproduction. Both herbivore travel costs themselves, and also insect behaviour that might evolve in response to travel costs, can thus create plant density dependence-a basic requirement for regulation of plant populations by their insect herbivores.

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“…Differences in migration rate will obviously affect the number of individuals in a population and therefore the level of herbivory or parasitism rate. Also, oviposition rate of insects can be affected by the size of plant populations (Maguire 1983;Shea et al 2000), leading to differences in the level of herbivory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant population size and isolation affect herbivory of Silene latifolia by the specialist herbivore Hadena bicruris and parasitism of the herbivore by parasitoids

et al. 2005

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Habitat fragmentation can affect levels of herbivory in plant populations if plants and herbivores are differentially affected by fragmentation. Moreover, if herbivores are top-down controlled by predators or parasitoids, herbivory may also be affected by differential effects of fragmentation on herbivores and their natural enemies. We used natural Silene latifolia populations to examine the effects of plant population size and isolation on the level of herbivory by the seed predating noctuid Hadena bicruris and the rate of parasitism of the herbivore by its parasitoids. In addition, we examined oviposition rate, herbivory and parasitism in differently sized experimental populations. In natural populations, the level of herbivory increased and the rate of parasitism decreased with decreasing plant population size and increasing degree of isolation. The number of parasitoid species also declined with decreasing plant population size. In the experimental populations, the level of herbivory was also higher in smaller populations, in accordance with higher oviposition rates, but was not accompanied by lower rates of parasitism. Similarly, oviposition rate and herbivory, but not parasitism rate, increased near the edges of populations. These results suggests that in this system with the well dispersing herbivore H. bicruris, habitat fragmentation increases herbivory of the plant through a behavioural response of the moth that leads to higher oviposition rates in fragmented populations with a reduced population size, increased isolation and higher edge-to-interior ratio. Although the rate of parasitism and the number of parasitoid species declined with decreasing population size in the natural populations, we argue that in this system it is unlikely that this decline made a major contribution to increased herbivory.

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Effect of patch size and plant density of Paterson"s curse ( Echium plantagineum ) on the oviposition of a specialist weevil, Mogulones larvatus

Cited by 29 publications

References 36 publications

Rapid Development of Adaptive, Climate-Driven Clinal Variation in Seed Mass in the Invasive Annual Forb Echium plantagineum L.

Rapid Development of Adaptive, Climate-Driven Clinal Variation in Seed Mass in the Invasive Annual Forb Echium plantagineum L.

Travel costs, oviposition behaviour and the dynamics of insect–plant systems

Plant population size and isolation affect herbivory of Silene latifolia by the specialist herbivore Hadena bicruris and parasitism of the herbivore by parasitoids

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