Journal ArticleDOI
Patterns and correlates of interspecific variation in foliar insect herbivory and pathogen attack in Brazilian cerrado
TLDR
Plant and leaf traits were correlated with interspecific variation in attack by herbivores and pathogens in order to account for differences among plant species, and protein availability and plant height were positive predictors of pathogen attack among plant Species, while leaf expansion rate was a significant negative predictor.Abstract:
Patterns of insect herbivore and leaf pathogen attack are described for 25 plant species (10 trees, 10 shrubs and five herbs) at a Brazilian savanna (cerrado) site. Plant and leaf traits were correlated with interspecific variation in attack by herbivores and pathogens in order to account for differences among plant species. Across all species, pathogen damage was 1.5 times higher than insect damage (17.3% vs. 6.8%, respectively). Most insect damage occurred to young leaves while they were expanding (end of the dry season). In contrast, pathogen attack was low on young expanding leaves at the end of the dry season, increased as those leaves matured in the wet season, but continued to increase through the next dry season. Protein-binding capacity was negatively associated with interspecific differences in insect damage to mature leaves. Protein availability and plant height were positive predictors of pathogen attack among plant species, while leaf expansion rate was a significant negative predictor. Interspecific differences in leaf phenology had little effect on the amount of damage caused by either insects or pathogens. However, new leaves produced during the wet season suffered less insect damage than leaves produced during the dry season, the time of greatest leaf production. Timing of young leaf production affected pathogen attack but the season of escape depended on plant species. In contrast, there was no evidence for escape in space as common species were less likely to suffer high pathogen attack than rare species. New and mature leaf toughness, and time for a leaf to reach full expansion all increased from herbs to shrub to trees, while mature leaf nitrogen decreased in that order.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Plant genotype and environment interact to shape a diverse arthropod community on evening primrose (oenothera biennis)
TL;DR: The authors examined the importance of plant genotype and environmental factors operating at large and small spatial scales in affecting a multitrophic arthropod community on plants, and found that the effects of particular plant genotypes on the arthropoid community varied across habitats.
Journal ArticleDOI
Feeny revisited: condensed tannins as anti‐herbivore defences in leaf‐chewing herbivore communities of Quercus
TL;DR: Community level oak–tannin–insect patterns have been largely unexplored since Paul Feeny's ground‐breaking research and abundance and richness of leaf‐chewing herbivores are negatively correlated with foliar condensed tannin concentrations and variation in condensed tANNin concentrations explains variation in herbivore community structure.
Journal ArticleDOI
Why Do Some Tropical Forests Have So Many Species of Trees
Egbert Giles Leigh,Priya Davidar,Salim Ali,Christopher W. Dick,Jean-Philippe Puyravaud,John Terborgh,S. J. Wright +6 more
TL;DR: It is shown that if new tree species begin as small populations, species that are now common must have spread more quickly than chance allows, and most tree species have some setting in which they can increase when rare, and these trade-offs underlie the mechanisms maintaining α-diversity and species turnover.
Journal ArticleDOI
On the vegetative biomass partitioning of seed plant leaves, stems, and roots.
Karl J. Niklas,Brian J. Enquist +1 more
TL;DR: Allometric theory is used to predict the relationships among annual leaf, stem, and root growth rates (GL, GS, and GR, respectively) across a broad spectrum of seed plant species and indicates that reproductive investments may scale isometrically with respect to vegetative organ growth rates.
Leaf Functional Traits of Neotropical Savanna Trees in Relation to Seasonal Water Deficit - eScholarship
A.C Franco,Mercedes M. C. Bustamante,Caldas L. S,Goldstein G,Meinzer F. C,Kozovits A. R,Philip W. Rundel,Coradin V.T.R. +7 more
TL;DR: Their short leafless period and the capacity to flush by the end of the dry season may also contribute to offset the longer payback period of evergreen species, although it may involve the higher cost of maintaining a deep-root system or a tight control of plant water balance in the shallow-rooted ones.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences
Abstract: (2003). Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences. The American Statistician: Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 68-69.
Journal ArticleDOI
Organization of a Plant-Arthropod Association in Simple and Diverse Habitats: The Fauna of Collards (Brassica Oleracea)
TL;DR: The results suggest a new proposition, the resource concentration hypothesis, which states that herbivores are more likely to find and remain on hosts that are growing in dense or nearly pure stands; that the most specialized species frequently attain higher relative densities in simple environments; and that biomass tends to become concentrated in a few species, causing a decrease in the diversity of herbsivores in pure stands.
Book ChapterDOI
Plant apparency and chemical defense
TL;DR: A test of how far understanding of insect ecology has progressed will be the authors' ability to predict how patterns vary from one kind of community to another and how they will change when subjected to natural or human disturbance.
Journal ArticleDOI
Herbivory and plant defenses in tropical forests
P. D. Coley and,J. A. Barone +1 more
TL;DR: Folivorous mammals do less damage than insects or pathogens but have evolved to cope with the high levels of plant defenses and, along with insect herbivores, may contribute to the maintenance of tree diversity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in a lowland tropical forest
TL;DR: Interspecific patterns of defense mechanisms are discussed in terms of current theories of plant apparency, and an alternative model for the evolution of plant defenses is presented.