Why Are There So Many Species of Herbivorous Insects in Tropical Rainforests?

Novotný, Vojtěch; Drozd, Pavel; Miller, Scott E.; Kulfan, Miroslav; Janda, Milan; Basset, Yves; Weiblen, George D.

doi:10.1126/science.1129237

Cited by 488 publications

(512 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

475

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The relationship between host plant richness and insect richness, such as observed in the present study, is well established in the literature on insect-plant interactions (Strong et al 1984, Novotny et al 2006, Ødegaard 2006. Therefore, habitat type had an indirect effect on these communities.…”

Section: Continuesupporting

confidence: 62%

Species richness in natural and disturbed habitats: Asteraceae and Flower-head insects (Tephritidae: Diptera)

Diniz¹,

Prado²,

Lewinsohn³

2010

Neotrop. entomol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

-Anthropogenic changes in the landscape result in an environmental mosaic with serious consequences for biodiversity. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of the anthropogenic changes on Asteraceae richness and abundance, and to evaluate the consequences for the richness of Tephritidae assemblages in fi ve sampling sites, with three sampled habitats in each: cerrado (Brazilian savanna), eucalyptus stands and pasture. Sampling was carried out in 15 random transects (cerrados and one pasture) and in 30 transects (eucalyptus stands and the remaining pastures). Composition, species richness and insect abundance in each habitat type was estimated by sampling the fl ower heads for each species of host plant, collected by four people for 1h. Differences in mean abundance of plant population between habitats and sites were tested by two-way ANOVA. Differences in plant species richness between habitats and sites and effects of habitat, site and host plant richness on insect richness were tested using a generalized linear model with Poisson errors. Within each sampling site, cerrados showed higher species richness of Asteraceae than pastures and eucalyptus stands. There were also signifi cant differences in plant richness among sites. Mean population abundance values were signifi cantly different among habitats, but not among sites. Increased host plant richness led to signifi cant insect species richness. There were no additional signifi cant effects of habitat on insect richness. Therefore, anthropogenic alterations in landscape determined the impoverishment of plant assemblages and therefore of insect assemblages, because of the positive relationship between host plant richness and insect richness.

show abstract

Section: Continuesupporting

confidence: 62%

Species richness in natural and disturbed habitats: Asteraceae and Flower-head insects (Tephritidae: Diptera)

Diniz¹,

Prado²,

Lewinsohn³

2010

Neotrop. entomol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These results suggest that, even though semiconcealed feeders are less protected than concealed ones, they still have an advantage over exposed feeders, at least, in temperate forests. In brief, because they are less vulnerable to harsh conditions and predators (Novotny et al., 2006; Ribeiro & Basset, 2007), they can occupy higher forest levels, reducing parasitism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical canopy gradient shaping the stratification of leaf‐chewer–parasitoid interactions in a temperate forest

Šigut

Šigutová

Šipoš

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge about herbivores and their parasitoids in forest canopies remains limited, despite their diversity and ecological importance. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that shape the herbivore–parasitoid community structure, particularly the effect of vertical gradient. We investigated a quantitative community dataset of exposed and semiconcealed leaf‐chewing larvae and their parasitoids along a vertical canopy gradient in a temperate forest. We sampled target insects using an elevated work platform in a 0.2 ha broadleaf deciduous forest plot in the Czech Republic. We analyzed the effect of vertical position among three canopy levels (first [lowest], second [middle], and third [highest]) and tree species on community descriptors (density, diversity, and parasitism rate) and food web structure. We also analyzed vertical patterns in density and parasitism rate between exposed and semiconcealed hosts, and the vertical preference of the most abundant parasitoid taxa in relation to their host specificity. Tree species was an important determinant of all community descriptors and food web structure. Insect density and diversity varied with the vertical gradient, but was only significant for hosts. Both host guilds were most abundant in the second level, but only the density of exposed hosts declined in the third level. Parasitism rate decreased from the first to third level. The overall parasitism rate did not differ between guilds, but semiconcealed hosts suffered lower parasitism in the third level. Less host‐specific taxa (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae) operated more frequently lower in the canopy, whereas more host‐specific Tachinidae followed their host distribution. The most host‐specific Chalcidoidea preferred the third level. Vertical stratification of insect density, diversity, and parasitism rate was most pronounced in the tallest tree species. Therefore, our study contradicts the general paradigm of weak arthropod stratification in temperate forest canopies. However, in the network structure, vertical variation might be superseded by variation among tree species.

show abstract

“…The increases in animal diversity with increasing precipitation are probably an indirect consequence of the impact of precipitation on plant diversity and productivity, upon which animal diversity depends more directly (Kay et al 1997;Novotny et al 2006). Since plant epiphytes require frequent and aseasonal rainfall, they would have benefited more directly from the increased precipitation that angiosperms initiated (Boyce 2008), and epiphytic angiosperms, ferns, lycopods and bryophytes all radiated only after angiosperms came to dominate tropical ecosystems (Boyce et al Indeed, numerous lineages of vertebrate and invertebrate animals are also now thought to have radiated shortly after angiosperm diversification (Wang et al 2009), and the propagation of high rainfall conditions by angiosperms provides a potential causal mechanism explaining this phenomenon.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An exceptional role for flowering plant physiology in the expansion of tropical rainforests and biodiversity

Boyce

Lee

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Movement of water from soil to atmosphere by plant transpiration can feed precipitation, but is limited by the hydraulic capacities of plants, which have not been uniform through time. The flowering plants that dominate modern vegetation possess transpiration capacities that are dramatically higher than any other plants, living or extinct. Transpiration operates at the level of the leaf, however, and how the impact of this physiological revolution scales up to the landscape and larger environment remains unclear. Here, climate modelling demonstrates that angiosperms help ensure aseasonally high levels of precipitation in the modern tropics. Most strikingly, replacement of angiosperm with non-angiosperm vegetation would result in a hotter, drier and more seasonal Amazon basin, decreasing the overall area of ever-wet rainforest by 80 per cent. Thus, flowering plant ecological dominance has strongly altered climate and the global hydrological cycle. Because tropical biodiversity is closely tied to precipitation and rainforest area, angiosperm climate modification may have promoted diversification of the angiosperms themselves, as well as radiations of diverse vertebrate and invertebrate animal lineages and of epiphytic plants. Their exceptional potential for environmental modification may have contributed to divergent responses to similar climates and global perturbations, like mass extinctions, before and after angiosperm evolution.

show abstract

Why Are There So Many Species of Herbivorous Insects in Tropical Rainforests?

Cited by 488 publications

References 19 publications

Species richness in natural and disturbed habitats: Asteraceae and Flower-head insects (Tephritidae: Diptera)

Species richness in natural and disturbed habitats: Asteraceae and Flower-head insects (Tephritidae: Diptera)

Vertical canopy gradient shaping the stratification of leaf‐chewer–parasitoid interactions in a temperate forest

An exceptional role for flowering plant physiology in the expansion of tropical rainforests and biodiversity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About