Phenols in Leaves and Bark of Fagus sylvatica as Determinants of Insect Occurrences

Abstract

Beech forests play an important role in temperate and north Mediterranean ecosystems in Greece since they occupy infertile montane soils. In the last glacial maximum, Fagus sylvatica (beech) was confined to Southern Europe where it was dominant and in the last thousand years has expanded its range to dominate central Europe. We sampled four different beech forest types. We found 298 insect species associated with beech trees and dead beech wood. While F. sylvatica and Quercus (oak) are confamilial, there are great differences in richness of the associated entomofauna. Insect species that inhabit beech forests are less than one fifth of those species living in oak dominated forests despite the fact that beech is the most abundant central and north European tree. There is a distinct paucity of monophagous species on beech trees and most insect species are shared between co-occurring deciduous tree species and beech. This lack of species is attributed to the vegetation history and secondary plant chemistry. Bark and leaf biophenols from beech indicate that differences in plant secondary metabolites may be responsible for the differences in the richness of entomofauna in communities dominated by beech and other deciduous trees.

Properties of dissolved and total organic matter in throughfall, stemflow and forest floor leachate of central European forests

“…Furthermore, they affect the growth of mycorrhizal fungi (Lindeberg, 1985) and inhibit feeding by various fungi (Alfredsen et al, 2008) and potential herbivores (Dübeler et al, 1997;Petrakis et al, 2011). In their review, Wardle et al (1998) concluded that the effect of plants with allelopathic potential on other organisms may ultimately result not only in net change on the population level (e.g.…”

Habitat-conditioned feeding behaviour in Barbitistes constrictus (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

“…The other consideration involves individuals that hatched in a beech forest and artificial surplus of spruce needles as a valuable food source could alter their behaviour [10]. Either that, or bush-crickets are possibly adapted to worse beech (phenolic) conditions, this encourages the feeding of whole needles when available [23,25]. Both considerations are quite plausible as conditioned behaviour appears to be an adaptation mechanism when it comes to the foraging of B. constrictus.…”

“…phenols in beech) [24,25]. Therefore, one can hypothesise that populations are subjected to natural selection on account of differences in food plants and their different parts [cf.…”

The entomofauna on the leaves of two forest species, Fagus sylvatica and Corylus avelana, in Menoikio Mountain of Serres

“…In that point we can highlight that while F. sylvatica and C. avelana are confamiliar, there are great differences in richness of the entomofauna between them. These differences are largely due to the secondary metabolites occurring in beech leaves (Petrakis et al 2011).These polyphenols are key components of defense mechanisms against insects (Oszmianski et al 2015).…”

“…So far, a lot of studies on the insect fauna on leaves of Fagus sylvatica (Fagaceae) have been conducted (Fernandes et al 2003, Petrakis et al 2011, Kot and Kmiec 2012. In hazel trees, Corylus avelana (Betulaceae) there are few.…”