Local Insect Damage Reduces Fluctuating Asymmetry in Next-year's Leaves of Downy Birch.

ABSTRACT: Insect herbivory imposes stress on host plants. This stress may cause an increase in leaf fluctuating asymmetry (FA), which is defined as the magnitude of the random deviations from a symmetrical leaf shape. We tested the hypothesis that differences in leaf FA among individual shoots of downy birch, Betula pubescens, are at least partly explained by local damage caused by insects in the previous year. Unexpectedly, we found that in the year following the damage imposed by miners, leafrollers and defoliators, damaged birch shoots produced leaves with lower FAs compared to shoots from the same tree that had not been damaged by insects. This effect was consistent among the different groups of insects investigated, but intra-species comparisons showed that statistical significance was reached

SUBMITTER: Kozlov MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6023539 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature