Plant apparency, an overlooked driver of associational resistance to insect herbivory

Castagneyrol, Bastien; Giffard, Brice; Péré, Christelle; Jactel, Hervé

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12055

Cited by 236 publications

(293 citation statements)

References 92 publications

(200 reference statements)

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“…With respect to the nonindependence between some explanatory variables (Online Resource 3), parameter weights were used for the identification of explanatory variables and interactions that consistently contributed to the models' explanatory power. Parameter weights were computed by averaging models with ΔAICc <2 (Burnham and Anderson 2002;Grueber et al 2011). We defined parameters with a parameter weight ≥0.6 as important for the explication of the response variable's variance.…”

Section: Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding damage to plants increases with plant size across 21 Brassicaceae species

et al. 2015

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Plant size is a major predictor of ecological functioning. We tested the hypothesis that feeding damage to plants increases with plant size, as the conspicuousness of large plants makes resource finding and colonisation easier. Further, large plants can be attractive to herbivores, as they offer greater amounts and ranges of resources and niches, but direct evidence from experiments testing size effects on feeding damage and consequently on plant fitness is so far missing. We established a common garden experiment with a plant size gradient (10-130 cm height) using 21 annual Brassicaceae species, and quantified plant size, biomass and number of all aboveground components (flowers, fruits, leaves, stems) and their proportional feeding damage. Plant reproductive fitness was measured using seed number, 1000 seed weight and total seed weight. Feeding damage to the different plant components increased with plant size or component biomass, with mean damage levels being approximately 30 % for flowers, 5 % for fruits and 1 % for leaves and stems. Feeding damage affected plant reproductive fitness depending on feeding damage type, with flower damage having the strongest effect, shown by greatly reduced seed number, 1000 seed weight and total seed weight. Finally, we found an overall negative effect of plant size on 1000 seed weight, but not on seed number and total seed weight. In conclusion, being conspicuous and attractive to herbivores causes greater flower damage leading to higher fitness costs for large plants, which might be partly counterbalanced by benefits such as enhanced competitive/compensatory abilities or more mutualistic pollinator visits.

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Section: Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding damage to plants increases with plant size across 21 Brassicaceae species

et al. 2015

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“…How easily a host plant is found by herbivores, i.e. its apparency (Strauss et al 2015), has been described as a key mechanism driving AR (Castagneyrol et al 2013). Both visual (Dulaurent et al 2012;Damien et al 2016) and chemical (Zhang and Schlyter 2004;Jactel et al 2011) cues used by insect herbivores to locate and colonize a host tree can be disrupted by the presence of heterospecific neighbours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant neighbour identity and invasive pathogen infection affect associational resistance to an invasive gall wasp

et al. 2017

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Theory predicts that mixed forests are more resistant to native pests than pure forests (i.e. associational resistance) because of reduced host accessibility and increased top-down control by natural enemies. Yet, whether the same mechanisms also apply to invasive pests remains to be verified. We tested the hypothesis of associational resistance against the invasive Asian chestnut gall wasp (ACGW, Dryocosmus kuriphilus) by comparing ACGW infestation rates on chestnuts (Castanea sativa) in stands varying in species composition (chestnut alone or associated with oaks, pines or ashes). We investigated the effects of reduced chestnut density and frequency in mixed stands, as well as the effect of biotic interactions between ACGW, its parasitoids and the chestnut blight disease (caused by Cryphonectria parasitica). ACGW infestation rates were significantly lower in chestnut-oak and chestnut-ash mixtures than in pure chestnut stands and chestnut-pine mixtures. Infestation rate decreased with decreasing chestnut relative proportion. The composition of native parasitoid communities emerged from galls significantly differed between pure and mixed chestnut stands, but not the species richness or abundance of parasitoids. The abundance of the introduced parasitoid Torymus sinensis was not correlated with ACGW infestation rates and was independent of stand composition. Blight symptoms modified ACGW infestation rates with taller trees being preferred when they were asymptomatic but avoided when they presented blight disease damage. Our results suggest that conservation biological control based on tree species mixtures could contribute to reducing the damage of invasive forest pests.Excepting for the first and last authors, the order of authors is alphabetical.

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“…Mixtures of host and non-host tree species can also reduce the success of herbivores to detect suitable resources, both visually [13] and olfactorily [14]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Tree Diversity on Different Aspects of Insect Herbivory along a Global Temperature Gradient - A Meta-Analysis

Kambach¹,

Kühn²,

Castagneyrol³

et al. 2016

PLoS ONE

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Forests with higher tree diversity are often assumed to be more resistant to insect herbivores but whether this effect depends on climatic conditions is so far poorly understood. In particular, a forest’s resistance to herbivory may depend on mean annual temperature (MAT) as a key driver of plant and insect phenology. We carried out a global meta-analysis on regression coefficients between tree diversity and four aspects of insect herbivory, namely herbivore damage, abundance, incidence rate and species richness. To test for a potential shift of tree diversity effects along a global gradient of MAT we applied mixed-effects models and estimated grand mean effect sizes and the influence of MAT, experimental vs. observational studies and herbivores diet breadth. There was no overall effect of tree diversity on the pooled effect sizes of insect herbivore damage, abundance and incidence rate. However, when analysed separately, we found positive grand mean effect sizes for herbivore abundance and species richness. For herbivore damage and incidence rate we found a significant but opposing shift along a gradient of MAT indicating that with increasing MAT diversity effects on herbivore damage tend towards associational resistance whereas diversity effects on incidence rates tend towards associational susceptibility. Our results contradict previous meta-analyses reporting overall associational resistance to insect herbivores in mixed forests. Instead, we report that tree diversity effects on insect herbivores can follow a biogeographic pattern calling for further in-depth studies in this field.

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Plant apparency, an overlooked driver of associational resistance to insect herbivory

Cited by 236 publications

References 92 publications

Feeding damage to plants increases with plant size across 21 Brassicaceae species

Feeding damage to plants increases with plant size across 21 Brassicaceae species

Plant neighbour identity and invasive pathogen infection affect associational resistance to an invasive gall wasp

The Impact of Tree Diversity on Different Aspects of Insect Herbivory along a Global Temperature Gradient - A Meta-Analysis

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