| Title: | Diversity of Gall-Inducing Insects Associated With a Widely Distributed Tropical Tree Species: Testing the Environmental Stress Hypothesis |
| Author(s): | Fagundes M; Cuevas-Reyes P; Ramos Leite LF; Borges MAZ; De Araujo WS; Fernandes GW; Siqueira WK; |
| Address: | "Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Biodiversidade e Uso dos Recursos Naturais, Laboratorio de Biologia da Conservacao, DBG/CCBS/Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Laboratorio de Ecologia de Interacciones Bioticas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Ciudad Universitaria, C.P., Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Laboratorio de Ecologia Evolutiva & Biodiversidade, DBG/ICB/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1938-2936 (Electronic) 0046-225X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Abiotic factors can affect plant performance and cause stress, which in turn affects plant-herbivore interactions. The Environmental Stress Hypothesis (ESH) predicts that gall-inducing insect diversity will be greater on host plants that grow in stressful habitats. We tested this hypothesis, considering both historical and ecological scales, using the plant Copaifera langsdorffii Desf. (Fabaceae) as a model because it has a wide geographic distribution and is a super-host of gall-inducing insects. According to the ESH, we predicted that 1) on a historical scale, the diversity of gall-inducing insects will be higher in habitats with greater environmental stress and 2) on an ecological scale, gall-inducing insect diversity will be greater on plants that possess greater levels of foliar sclerophylly. We sampled gall-inducing insects on plants of C. langsdorffii in five sites with different levels of water and soil nutrient availability and separated from each other by a distance of up to 470 km. The composition, richness, and abundance of gall-inducing insects varied among study sites. Plants located in more stressful habitats had higher levels of foliar sclerophylly; but richness and abundance of gall-inducing insects were not affected by host plant sclerophylly. Habitat stress was a good predictor of gall-inducing insect diversity on a regional scale, thus corroborating the first prediction of the ESH. No relationship was found between plant sclerophylly and gall-inducing insect diversity within habitats. Therefore, on a local scale, we did not find support for our second prediction related to the ESH" |
| Keywords: | Animals Biodiversity Ecosystem Herbivory *Insecta Soil *Trees Brazilian savanna environmental filtering gall-inducing species diversity habitat stress plant sclerophylly; |
| Notes: | "MedlineFagundes, Marcilio Cuevas-Reyes, Pablo Ramos Leite, Leticia F Borges, Magno Augusto Zaza De Araujo, Walter Santos Fernandes, G Wilson Siqueira, Walisson Kenedy eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2020/07/16 Environ Entomol. 2020 Aug 20; 49(4):838-847. doi: 10.1093/ee/nvaa072" |
