Legacy effects of aboveground-belowground interactions
Root herbivory can greatly affect the performance of aboveground insects via changes in plant chemistry. These interactions have been studied extensively in experiments where aboveground and belowground insects were feeding on the same plant. However, little is known about how aboveground and belowg...
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Published in | Ecology letters Vol. 15; no. 8; pp. 813 - 821 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.08.2012
Blackwell |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Root herbivory can greatly affect the performance of aboveground insects via changes in plant chemistry. These interactions have been studied extensively in experiments where aboveground and belowground insects were feeding on the same plant. However, little is known about how aboveground and belowground organisms interact when they feed on plant individuals that grow after each other in the same soil. We show that feeding by aboveground and belowground insect herbivores on ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) plants exert unique soil legacy effects, via herbivore‐induced changes in the composition of soil fungi. These changes in the soil biota induced by aboveground and belowground herbivores of preceding plants greatly influenced the pyrrolizidine alkaloid content, biomass and aboveground multitrophic interactions of succeeding plants. We conclude that plant‐mediated interactions between aboveground and belowground insects are also important when they do not feed simultaneously on the same plant. |
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Bibliography: | istex:634333A1E154194D289146573456BD746272FC25 ark:/67375/WNG-0Z8D06PJ-R ArticleID:ELE1801 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 |
ISSN: | 1461-023X 1461-0248 |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01801.x |