Skip Navigation



Journal of Plant Ecology Advance Access published online on June 17, 2008
Journal of Plant Ecology, doi:10.1093/jpe/rtn015
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
1/3/187    most recent
rtn015v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sudderth, E. A.
Right arrow Articles by Bazzaz, F. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Botanical Society of China. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

N availability does not modify plant-mediated responses of Trichoplusia ni to elevated CO2

Erika A. Sudderth1,* and F. A. Bazzaz2,{dagger}

1 Department of Integrative Biology, 3060 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140, USA
2 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
{dagger} (Deceased, 6 February, 2008)

* Correspondence address: Tel: 510-643-5430; Fax: 510-643-6264; E-mail: sudderth{at}berkeley.edu

Aims: Elevated CO2 and increased N availability can alter a variety of plant physiological processes leading to changes in the nutritional quality of leaf tissue for herbivores. Numerous experiments have examined the responses of herbivores to environmental change; however the potential effects of simultaneous change in multiple factors on leaf-chewing insect herbivores are less well understood. The plant-mediated effects of elevated CO2 and high N on the performance of a generalist leaf-chewing insect herbivore, Trichoplusia ni, were investigated.

Methods: Newly hatched T. ni larvae were introduced to Amaranthus viridis and Polygonum persicaria plants grown under ambient and elevated CO2 and low and high N conditions. Insect performance was assessed by measuring larvae weight after ten days of feeding. Plant photosynthesis, biomass, leaf area and specific leaf weight were measured to determine the effects of elevated CO2, N and insect feeding on plant performance.

Important Findings: Elevated CO2 did not have strong effects on plant or insect performance, only affecting a few responses under low or high N conditions, but not both. Growth under high nitrogen improved almost all measures of plant performance. Trichoplusia ni performed significantly better on Amaranthus viridis (C4) compared to Polygonum persicaria (C3), despite similar leaf C:N ratios in both species. The performance of T. ni caterpillars was only improved by the high nitrogen treatment when they were feeding on P. persicaria, the host they performed poorly on. The only interactions between N and CO2 affecting plant performance were seen for leaf photosynthesis of P. persicaria and leaf area of A. viridis. Contrary to the predictions, there were no significant CO2 by N interactions affecting T. ni performance.

Keywords: herbivory • insect performance • Polygonum persicaria • Amaranthus viridis


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.