Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MULTIATTACK (Plant adaptations to unpredictable attack by dynamic insect communities)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-08-01 al 2021-01-31
We have conducted five years of field experiments in which we reveal that early-season herbivory affect community assembly of insect herbivore communities and that these processes affect plant fitness. These effects differ for plant species and is strongly dependent on the predictability of insect community assembly on individual plants. In our modelling approaches, we identified that the impact of herbivore attack is strongly modified by plant competition for light and nutrients. By studying the physiological responses of plant species to different scenarios of multi-herbivore attack, we reveal that plants integrate responses to multiple herbivores to anticipate future herbivore attack. In these physiological studies we show that plant species have different repertoires to deal with sequential and simultaneous attack by multiple herbivores.
The main achievements of the project in this period (60 months):
Results from field studies reveal that the order of herbivore arrival on wild cabbage populations influences subsequent arthropod community development (Stam et al. 2018 Oikos) and affects plant fitness (Stam et al. 2019 Journal of Ecology)
We discovered that symbiotic virusses associated with parasitic wasps affect plant-mediated species interactions between herbivores (Cusumano et al. 2018 Ecology Letters) as well as higher trophic level organisms (Zhu et al. 2018 PNAS). We presented new synthesis of the role of micro-organisms associated with third trophic level organisms in affecting multi-trophic interaction in insect communities (Dicke et al. 2020 Annual Review of Entomology)
We presented a wide array of studies on parasitoid behavior in response to multi-herbivore attack and habitat complexity (Aartsman et al 2019 Current Opinion Insect Science; 2019 Oikos; 2020 Landscape Ecology; 2020 Oikos)
We used a new modelling approach to elucidate the interaction between plant competition for light and herbivore feeding patterns (de Vries et al. 2018 Annals of Botany). Results from our modelling approaches identified the intricate interplay between plant defence and competition for adaptiveness of plant defence strategies (de Vries et al. 2019 Functional Ecology; Douma et al 2019 Plant Cell and Environment)
We identified an important role for herbivore-pollinator interactions in determining indirect effects on plant fitness (Rusman et al. 2018 Functional Ecology; 2019 Oecologia; 2019 Plant Cell and Environment; 2019 Trends in Plant Science; 2020 Journal of Ecology)
We have several publications pending on the physiological capabilities of plants to attack by multiple herbivores. We show that species richness and feeding guild of attacker communities strongly affect plant resistance to late season herbivore attack (Fernandez de Bobadilla et al 2021 New Phytologist). We present a novel framework of plant anticipatory strategies to deal with forthcoming attack (Mertens et al. 2021 Trends in Ecology and Evolution). These results will be exploited in new grant applications.