Resilience of plant-insect interactions in an oak lineage through Quaternary climate change

AbstractPlant-insect interactions are vital for structuring terrestrial ecosystems. It is still unclear how climate change in geological time might have shaped plant-insect interactions leading to modern ecosystems. We investigated the effect of Quaternary climate change on plant-insect interactions by observing insect herbivory on leaves of an evergreen sclerophyllous oak lineage (QuercussectionHeterobalanus, HET) from a late Pliocene flora and eight living forests in southwestern China. Among the modern HET populations investigated, the damage diversity tends to be higher in warmer and wetter climates. Even though the climate of the fossil flora was warmer and wetter than modern sample sites, the damage diversity is lower in the fossil flora than in modern HET populations. Eleven out of 18 damage types in modern HET populations are observed in the fossil flora. All damage types in the fossil flora, except for one distinctive gall type, are found in modern HET populations. These results indicate that Quaternary climate change did not cause extensive extinction of insect herbivores in HET forests. The accumulation of a more diverse herbivore fauna over time supports the view of plant species as evolutionary “islands” for colonization and turnover of insect species.

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Understanding the ecology of host plant–insect herbivore interactions in the fossil record through bipartite networks

Paleobiology ◽

10.1017/pab.2021.20 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Anshuman Swain ◽

S. Augusta Maccracken ◽

William F. Fagan ◽

Conrad C. Labandeira

Keyword(s):

Fossil Record ◽

Local Community ◽

Insect Herbivory ◽

Leaf Damage ◽

Fossil Flora ◽

Bipartite Network ◽

Bipartite Networks ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Central Texas ◽

Insect Interactions

Abstract Plant–insect associations have been a significant component of terrestrial ecology for more than 400 Myr. Exploring these interactions in the fossil record through novel perspectives provides a window into understanding evolutionary and ecological forces that shaped these interactions. For the past several decades, researchers have documented, described, and categorized fossil evidence of these interactions. Drawing on powerful tools from network science, we propose here a bipartite network representation of fossilized plants and their herbivore-induced leaf damage to understand late Paleozoic plant–insect interactions at the local community level. We focus on four assemblages from north-central Texas, but the methods used in this work are general and can be applied to any well-preserved fossil flora. Network analysis can address key questions in the evolution of insect herbivory that often would be difficult to summarize using standard herbivory metrics.

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Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

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Generating and testing hypotheses about the fossil record of insect herbivory with a theoretical ecospace

10.1101/2021.07.16.452692 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sandra R Schachat ◽

Jonathan L Payne ◽

C Kevin Boyce ◽

Conrad C Labandeira

Keyword(s):

Surface Area ◽

Fossil Record ◽

Leaf Surface ◽

Insect Herbivory ◽

Fossil Flora ◽

Insect Damage ◽

Leaf Surface Area ◽

Number Of Leaves ◽

Damage Type ◽

Damage Types

A typical fossil flora examined for insect herbivory contains a few hundred leaves and a dozen or two insect damage types. Paleontologists employ a wide variety of metrics to assess differences in herbivory among assemblages: damage type diversity, intensity (the proportion of leaves, or of leaf surface area, with insect damage), the evenness of diversity, and comparisons of the evenness and diversity of the flora to the evenness and diversity of damage types. Although the number of metrics calculated is quite large, given the amount of data that is usually available, the study of insect herbivory in the fossil record still lacks a quantitative framework that can be used to distinguish among different causes of increased insect herbivory and to generate null hypotheses of the magnitude of changes in insect herbivory over time. Moreover, estimates of damage type diversity, the most common metric, are generated with inconsistent sampling standardization routines. Here we demonstrate that coverage-based rarefaction yields valid and reliable estimates of damage type diversity that are robust to differences among floral assemblages in the number of leaves examined, average leaf surface area, and the inclusion of plant organs other than leaves such as seeds and axes. We outline the potential of a theoretical ecospace that combines various metrics to distinguish between potential causes of increased herbivory. We close with a discussion of the most appropriate uses of a theoretical ecospace for insect herbivory, with the overlapping damage type diversities of Paleozoic gymnosperms and Cenozoic angiosperms as a brief case study.

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FIRST EVIDENCE OF SEED PREDATION BY ARTHROPODS FROM GONDWANA AND ITS EARLY PALEOZOIC HISTORY (RIO BONITO FORMATION, PARANÁ BASIN, BRAZIL)

Palaios ◽

10.2110/palo.2020.004 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 35 (7) ◽

pp. 292-301

Author(s):

THAMIRIS BARBOSA DOS SANTOS ◽

ESTHER REGINA DE SOUZA PINHEIRO ◽

ROBERTO IANNUZZI

Keyword(s):

Seed Predation ◽

Scale Insect ◽

Lower Permian ◽

Plant Organs ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Elevated Frequency ◽

Insect Interactions ◽

Damage Type ◽

Damage Types ◽

Plant Insect Interaction

ABSTRACT Seeds are plant organs commonly found worldwide in late Paleozoic deposits. In Gondwana, the seeds are found in deposits from Southern Africa, Antarctica, Oceania, and South America, and are widely reported in the well-known “Glossopteris Flora”. Even with a significant record of these plant organs, little is known about plant-insect interactions with seeds during the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods. In the present paper, we recorded the first formal record of seed consumption by arthropods in Cordaicarpus and Samaropsis-like seeds for Gondwana from lower Permian (Artinskian) deposits in Southern Brazil. The material analyzed was collected from the Itanema II outcrop of Santa Catarina State and consisted of 34 seed specimens. Of these, eight specimens presented evidence for plant-insect interaction, representing 23.5% of all specimens that were attacked by seed predators. The consumption was inflicted by insects with stylate mouthparts, probably belonging to hemipteroid or paleodictyopteroid lineages. The damage is described as perforations and scale-insect marks along the seed body. We recorded one damage type as DT74 and three others as new damage types DT399, DT400, and DT401, some of which are specific to a few seed morphotypes, including one morphotype with subtending cupule still attached to the seed. The elevated frequency of seed predation indicates that seed consumption by insects was well established during the early Permian.

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Herbarium specimens reveal herbivory patterns across the genus Cucurbita

10.1101/2021.07.21.452357 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Laura A. Jenny ◽

Lori R. Shapiro ◽

Charles C. Davis ◽

T. Jonathan Davies ◽

Naomi E. Pierce ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Insect Herbivory ◽

Herbarium Specimens ◽

Ecological Interactions ◽

Native Range ◽

Geographic Ranges ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

New Methods ◽

Related Plant ◽

Insect Interactions

PREMISE: Quantifying how closely related plant species differ in susceptibility to insect herbivory is important for our understanding of variation in plant-insect ecological interactions and evolutionary pressures on plant functional traits. However, empirically measuring in situ variation in herbivory over the entire geographic range where a plant-insect complex occurs is logistically difficult. Recently, new methods have been developed to use herbarium specimens to investigate patterns in plant-insect interactions across geographic areas, and during periods of accelerating anthropogenic change. Such investigations can provide insights into changes in herbivory intensity and phenology in plants that are of ecological and agricultural importance. METHODS: Here, we analyze 274 pressed herbarium samples from all 14 species in the economically important plant genus Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) to investigate variation in herbivory damage. This collection is comprised of specimens of wild, undomesticated Cucurbita that were collected from across their native range in the Neotropics and subtropics, and Cucurbita cultivars that were collected from both within their native range and from locations where they have been introduced for agriculture in temperate Eastern North America. RESULTS: We find that herbivory is common on individuals of all Cucurbita species collected from throughout their geographic ranges; however, estimates of herbivory varied considerably among individuals, with greater damage observed in specimens collected from unmanaged habitat. We also find evidence that mesophytic species accrue more insect damage than xerophytic species. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that herbarium specimens are a useful resource for understanding ecological interactions between domesticated crop plants and co-evolved insect herbivores.

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High richness of insect herbivory from the early Miocene Hindon Maar crater, Otago, New Zealand

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.2985 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. e2985 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Anna Lena Möller ◽

Uwe Kaulfuss ◽

Daphne E. Lee ◽

Torsten Wappler

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Insect Herbivory ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Leaf Damage ◽

Early Miocene ◽

Functional Feeding Groups ◽

Insect Damage ◽

Southern Beech ◽

The Antarctic ◽

Damage Types

Plants and insects are key components of terrestrial ecosystems and insect herbivory is the most important type of interaction in these ecosystems. This study presents the first analysis of associations between plants and insects for the early Miocene Hindon Maar fossil lagerstätte, Otago, New Zealand. A total of 584 fossil angiosperm leaves representing 24 morphotypes were examined to determine the presence or absence of insect damage types. Of these leaves, 73% show signs of insect damage; they comprise 821 occurrences of damage from 87 damage types representing all eight functional feeding groups. In comparison to other fossil localities, the Hindon leaves display a high abundance of insect damage and a high diversity of damage types. Leaves ofNothofagus(southern beech), the dominant angiosperm in the fossil assemblage, exhibit a similar leaf damage pattern to leaves from the nearby mid to late Miocene Dunedin Volcano Group sites but display a more diverse spectrum and much higher percentage of herbivory damage than a comparable dataset of leaves from Palaeocene and Eocene sites in the Antarctic Peninsula.

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Unravelling Plant Responses to Stress—The Importance of Targeted and Untargeted Metabolomics

Metabolites ◽

10.3390/metabo11080558 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 558

Author(s):

J. William Allwood ◽

Alex Williams ◽

Henriette Uthe ◽

Nicole M. van Dam ◽

Luis A. J. Mur ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Plant Stress ◽

Untargeted Metabolomics ◽

Plant Responses ◽

Enzymatic Assays ◽

Environmentally Sustainable ◽

Global Challenge ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Insect Interactions ◽

Turn Over

Climate change and an increasing population, present a massive global challenge with respect to environmentally sustainable nutritious food production. Crop yield enhancements, through breeding, are decreasing, whilst agricultural intensification is constrained by emerging, re-emerging, and endemic pests and pathogens, accounting for ~30% of global crop losses, as well as mounting abiotic stress pressures, due to climate change. Metabolomics approaches have previously contributed to our knowledge within the fields of molecular plant pathology and plant–insect interactions. However, these remain incredibly challenging targets, due to the vast diversity in metabolite volatility and polarity, heterogeneous mixtures of pathogen and plant cells, as well as rapid rates of metabolite turn-over. Unravelling the systematic biochemical responses of plants to various individual and combined stresses, involves monitoring signaling compounds, secondary messengers, phytohormones, and defensive and protective chemicals. This demands both targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches, as well as a range of enzymatic assays, protein assays, and proteomic and transcriptomic technologies. In this review, we focus upon the technical and biological challenges of measuring the metabolome associated with plant stress. We illustrate the challenges, with relevant examples from bacterial and fungal molecular pathologies, plant–insect interactions, and abiotic and combined stress in the environment. We also discuss future prospects from both the perspective of key innovative metabolomic technologies and their deployment in breeding for stress resistance.

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