Variations in the effects of local foliar damage on life span of individual leaves of downy birch (Betula pubescens)

Botany ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (7) ◽  
pp. 477-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail V. Kozlov ◽  
Elena L. Zvereva

Although the premature abscission of leaves damaged by herbivores has been discovered decades ago, the reduction in leaf life span caused by herbivory remains poorly documented, and the sources of variation in the magnitude of this effect have only rarely been studied. We aimed at exploring the effects of several herbivore species (at their background densities) and simulated herbivory on the leaf life span of downy birch, Betula pubescens Ehrh. Leaves damaged by herbivores abscised on average 12.6 days earlier and punched leaves 3.5 days earlier than the intact leaves of the control shoots. Different herbivores reduced the life span of the birch leaves from 0% to 27% depending on the intensity and timing of the damage but not on the insect feeding guild. The reduction in leaf life span was greater when the damage was imposed on expanding and growing leaves compared with mature leaves. However, the effect of herbivore species remained significant after accounting for intensity and timing of damage. This fact, together with greater reduction in leaf life span due to natural herbivory compared with mechanical damage, indicates that premature abscission in response to injury is considerably enhanced by insect-specific elicitors.

2004 ◽  
Vol 82 (7) ◽  
pp. 910-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail V Kozlov

Developmental instability, reflected by high fluctuating asymmetry, frequently indicates low fitness of an organism. However, it remains unknown whether in modular organisms, like plants, asymmetry is linked with performance at the level of individual metamers. To explore within-tree relationships between fluctuating asymmetry and leaf longevity, each third day between 22 August and 10 October 2001, leaves were collected under two large trees of white birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.). The date of leaf fall (a proxy of leaf life-span) was not linked with either leaf asymmetry or damage imposed by chewing insects. Similarly, leaves collected under 10 birches at the end of leaf fall in 2002 demonstrated the same asymmetry as leaves collected at the beginning of leaf fall. These results suggest that leaf longevity in white birch is independent of leaf asymmetry.Key words: leaf longevity, fluctuating asymmetry, within-tree variation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 476-482
Author(s):  
P. M. Evlakov ◽  
O. A. Fedorova ◽  
T. A. Grodetskaya ◽  
O. V. Zakharova ◽  
A. A. Gusev ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 28-44
Author(s):  
Dhirendar Kumar Pradhan ◽  
Christine Cahalan ◽  
Sunita Ulak

Climate is one of the major factors that govern the distribution of tree species. Climate change has already affected the growth, structure and distribution of trees and woodlands. Global climate change projections are wetter winters, drier summers and significance changes in temperature regimes in the next few decades. The main objective of this study was to experimentally demonstrate the effects of decline in summer rainfall, as predicted by UKCP09/IPCC, on height and diameter growth in two co-occurring silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) and downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh) and provide further understanding of the changes in growth and development in response to a decrease in water availability. One-year-old seedlings were grown in a temperature-controlled greenhouse for eight weeks in a split-plot experimental design. Their height and diameter were measured and analyzed. Result showed that plant height and diameter was significantly reduced with increased water stress. B. pendula showed higher physiological traits indicating that this species can perform better than B. pubescensin water-deficit conditions.


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim G. Lebedev ◽  
Konstantin V. Krutovsky ◽  
Konstantin A. Shestibratov

Weeds are a big problem in agriculture and forestry, and herbicides are the main tools to control them. Phosphinotricin (ammonium glufosinate, PPT) is one of the most effective non-selective herbicides, to which weeds hardly gain resistance, but the reasons for its effect and toxicity to plants are still unclear, and especially, it is little studied in trees, including transgenic ones. We studied the physiological responses of downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) containing the herbicide resistance bar gene or the cytosol glutamine synthetase GS1 gene (the target enzyme of the herbicide) to PPT-based Basta herbicide treatment in various doses under open-air conditions during two years. Birch saplings with the bar gene were resistant to a double field dose (10 L/ha), but the expression of the GS1 gene only slightly increased resistance compared to the control. Herbicide treatment increased the ammonium level in leaf tissue by 3–8 times, but this, apparently, was not the main cause of plant death. Among leaf pigments, chlorophyll B was the most resistant to PPT, and carotenoids were the most sensitive. Responses of birch trees with the GS1 gene (accumulation of ammonium, pigment content, and dehydration) during treatment with a low dose of herbicide were less pronounced than in control plants. One-year-old control and transgenic plants with the GS gene died after 2.5 L/ha treatment, and two-year-old plants lost foliage after such treatment but remained alive and developed buds four weeks after treatment. Herbicide treatment of plants with the bar gene did not cause significant deviations in height (first year) or the accumulation of aboveground biomass (second year). The obtained results improve our understanding of the effect of PPT on woody plants and can be used both to clarify mechanisms of herbicide action and in plantation forestry.


1972 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 1835-1839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niina Valanne ◽  
Terho Valanne

The patterns of variegation in the leaves of Betula pubescens only become evident in the mature leaves. However, the young plastids are also abnormal and pigment analysis does not suggest that the deformation of the plastids is caused by carotenoid deficiency. In mature leaves the mutant plastids are badly deformed. Among the most typical defects are an amoeboid form and the budding of peripheral reticular parts from the mutant plastids. These budding parts can easily be mistaken for mitochondria, but a closer inspection reveals differences in their tubular structures. These buds should therefore only be considered a special type of abnormal plastid.


2014 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika J. Edwards ◽  
David S. Chatelet ◽  
Lawren Sack ◽  
Michael J. Donoghue

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