Insect herbivory along environmental gradients.
Insect herbivory along environmental gradients.
复制标题
DOI：
10.4236/oje.2012.24024
复制
发表时间：
2012-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Hill, Sarah J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Andrew, Nigel R.;Roberts, Isobel R.;Hill, Sarah J.
在文献中有一个普遍的假设，即昆虫食草性向热带增加，但随着海拔高度的增加而减少。沿着其他环境梯度，如资源、温度、气候和生物梯度，也发现了类似的共性。然而，科学文献中越来越多的证据表明，这种普遍性并不一致。这可能是由于许多原因，包括评估食草动物的方式缺乏一致性，例如研究人员使用的方法不同，或者不同类型的食草昆虫造成的叶片损害存在根本差异。在这里，我们评估了61出版物研究昆虫植食性沿着一系列的环境梯度（生物和非生物）和审查的方法，研究人员已经用来收集他们的数据。我们发现从北美收集的样本中咀嚼叶子占主导地位，大多数研究评估了单一宿主植物物种的草食动物。33%的研究评估了纬度梯度，10%评估了海拔梯度。昆虫植食性是最常见的表示为百分比叶损害使用点植食性。较少的研究测量了一系列不同类型的食草动物（如汁液吸吮，叶挖掘，擦伤，根喂养）作为叶子老化。从我们的综合，我们希望未来的研究昆虫食草沿着环境梯度将考虑到食草以外的只是叶片咀嚼，如树液吸吮，这可能会造成更多的损害植物。未来的研究还应该评估草食动物作为一个速率，而不仅仅是一个单一的时间点，因为对一个年轻的叶子的损害可能比对一个成熟或衰老的叶子的损害更昂贵。植物性状的测量也将有助于比较不同生境、植物物种和物种内生理变化的食草动物。昆虫通过食草沿着环境梯度对植物的真正影响仍然知之甚少。
There is a general assumption in the literature that insect herbivory increases towards the tropics, but decreases with increasing altitude. Similar generalities have been identified along other environmental gradients, such as resource, temperature, climatic and biotic gradients. However there is growing evidence in the scientific literature that such generalities are not consistent. This could be due to a number of reasons including the lack of consistency in the way herbivory is assessed such as different methodologies used by researchers, or fundamental differences in leaf damage caused by different types of insect herbivores. Here we assess 61 publications researching insect herbivory along a range of environmental gradients (both biotic and abiotic) and review the methods that researchers have used to collected their data. We found leaf chewing from samples collected in North America dominated the field and most studies assessed herbivory on a single host plant species. Thirty three percent of the studies assessed latitudinal gradients, while 10% assessed altitudinal gradients. Insect herbivory was most commonly expressed as percentage leaf damage using point herbivory. Fewer studies measured a range of different types of herbivory (such as sap sucking, leaf mining, galling, and root feeding) as leaves aged. From our synthesis, we hope that future research into insect herbivory along environmental gradients will take into account herbivory other than just leaf chewing, such as sap sucking, which may cause more damage to plants. Future research should also assess herbivory as a rate, rather than just a single point in time as damage to a young leaf may be more costly to a plant than damage to a mature or senescing leaf. Measurements of plant traits will also assist in comparing herbivory across habitats, plant species, and within species physiological variation. The true impacts that insects have on plants via herbivory along environmental gradients are still poorly understood.