Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : Growth defense tradeoff theory predicts that plants in low-resource habitats invest more energy in defense mechanisms against natural enemies than growth, whereas plants in high-resource habitats can afford higher leaf loss rates. A less-studied defense against herbivores involves the synchrony of leaf production, which can be an effective defense strategy if leaf biomass production exceeds the capacity of consumption by insects. The aim of this study was to determine whether leaf synchrony varied across habitats with different available resources and whether insects were able to track young leaf production among tree habitat specialists in a tropical forest of French Guiana. We predicted that high-resource habitats would exhibit more synchrony in leaf production due to the low cost and investment to replace leaf tissue. We also expected closer patterns of leaf synchrony and herbivory within related species, assuming that they shared herbivores. We simultaneously monitored leaf production and herbivory rates of five pairs of tree species, each composed of a specialist of terra firme or white-sand forests within the same lineage. Our prediction was not supported by the strong interaction of habitat and lineage for leaf synchrony within individuals of the same species; although habitat specialists differed in leaf synchrony within four of five lineages, the direction of the effect was variable. All species showed short time lags for the correlation between leaf production and herbivory, suggesting that insects are tightly tracking leaf production, especially for the most synchronous species. Leaf synchrony may provide an important escape defense against herbivores, and its expression appears to be constrained by both evolutionary history and environmental factors.
ISSN: 1385-0237

hal-01204221
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01204221
DOI : 10.1007/s11258-013-0290-y
PRODINRA : 288500

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Ecological Society of America
Résumé : Herbivory is viewed as a major driver of plant evolution and the mostimportant energy pathway from plants to higher trophic levels. Therefore, understandingpatterns of herbivory on plants remains a key focus in evolution and ecology. Theevolutionary impacts of leaf herbivory include altering plant fitness, local adaptation, theevolution of defenses, and the diversification of plants as well as natural enemies. Leafherbivory also impacts ecological processes such as plant productivity, communitycomposition, and ecosystem nutrient cycling. Understanding the impact of herbivory onthese ecological and evolutionary processes requires species-specific, as opposed tocommunity-level, measures of herbivory. In addition, species-specific data enables the use ofmodern comparative methods to account for phylogenetic non-independence. Althoughhundreds of studies have measured natural rates of leaf consumption, we are unaware of anyaccessible compilation of these data. We created such a data set to provide the raw dataneeded to test general hypotheses relating to plant–herbivore interactions and to test theinfluence of biotic and abiotic factors on herbivory rates across large spatial scales. A largerepository will make this endeavor more efficient and robust. In total, we compiled 2641population-level measures for either annual or daily rates of leaf herbivory across 1145 speciesof vascular plants collected from 189 studies. All damage measures represent naturaloccurrences of herbivory that span numerous angiosperm, gymnosperm, and fern species. Toenable researchers to explore the causes of variation in herbivory and how these mightinteract, we added information about the study sites including: geolocation, climateclassification, habitat descriptions (e.g., seashore, grassland, forest, agricultural fields), andplant trait information concerning growth form and duration (e.g., annual vs. perennial). Wealso included extensive details of the methodology used to measure leaf damage, includingseasons and months of sampling, age of leaves, and the method used to estimate percentagearea missing. We anticipate that these data will make it possible to test important hypothesesin the plant–herbivore literature, including the plant apparency hypothesis, the latitudinalherbivorydefense hypothesis, the resource availability hypothesis, and the macroevolutionaryescalation of defense hypothesis.
ISSN: 0012-9658

hal-01601627
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01601627
DOI : 10.1890/13-1741.1
PRODINRA : 397136
PUBMED : 24870043

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Ecological Society of America
Résumé : Tropical plant diversity is extraordinarily high at both local and regional scales. Many studies have demonstrated that natural enemies maintain local diversity via negative density dependence, but we know little about how natural enemies influence beta-diversity across habitats and/or regions. One way herbivores could influence plant beta-diversity is by driving allocation trade-offs that promote habitat specialization across resource gradients. We therefore predicted that increasing resource availability should be accompanied by increasing herbivory rates and decreasing plant allocation to defense. Second, relative abundances within plant lineages are predicted to reflect patterns of habitat specialization and allocation trade-offs. A phylogenetic context is vital not only to compare homologous plant traits (including defense strategies) across habitat types, but also to connect evolutionary trade-offs to patterns of species diversification in each phylogenetic lineage. We tested these predictions for trees in white-sand, clay terra firme, and seasonally flooded forests in Peru and French Guiana that represent the range of soil fertility, forest structure, and floristic compositions found throughout the Amazon region. We established 74 0.5-ha plots in these habitats and sampled all trees. Within 12 representative plots we marked newly expanding leaves of 394 saplings representing 68 species, including the most abundant species in each plot in addition to species from five focal lineages: Swartzia and Inga (Fabaceae), Protieae (Burseracaeae), Bombacoideae (Malvaceae), and Micropholis (Sapotaceae). We measured total leaf production rates for each sapling and calculated relative herbivory impact as the ratio between herbivory rate and leaf production rate. Herbivory rates averaged 2.1% per month, did not correlate with leaf production rate, and were similar across habitats. Relative herbivore impacts exceeded leaf production rates for most species. Leaf production rate averaged 2.8%, was significantly higher in seasonally flooded forests than the other two habitats, and exhibited significant correlations with specific leaf area. Species with high herbivory rates exhibited significantly lower relative abundances in terra firme forests. Overall, focal species within lineages present contrasting patterns regarding their herbivory rates and leaf production rate within habitats. These results highlight why a lineage-based approach is necessary when attempting to connect hypotheses regarding evolutionary trade-offs to community assembly patterns.
ISSN: 0012-9658

hal-01032418
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032418

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Ecological Society of America
Résumé : Herbivores are often implicated in the generation of the extraordinarily diverse tropical flora. One hypothesis linking enemies to plant diversification posits that the evolution of novel defenses allows plants to escape their enemies and expand their ranges. When range expansion involves entering a new habitat type, this could accelerate defense evolution if habitats contain different assemblages of herbivores and/or divergent resource availabilities that affect plant defense allocation. We evaluated this hypothesis by investigating two sister habitat specialist ecotypes of Protium subserratum (Burseraceae), a common Amazonian tree that occurs in white-sand and terra firme forests. We collected insect herbivores feeding on the plants, assessed whether growth differences between habitats were genetically based using a reciprocal transplant experiment, and sampled multiple populations of both lineages for defense chemistry. Protium subserratum plants were attacked mainly by chrysomelid beetles and cicadellid hemipterans. Assemblages of insect herbivores were dissimilar between populations of ecotypes from different habitats, as well as from the same habitat 100 km distant. Populations from terra firme habitats grew significantly faster than white-sand populations; they were taller, produced more leaf area, and had more chlorophyll. White-sand populations expressed more dry mass of secondary compounds and accumulated more flavone glycosides and oxidized terpenes, whereas terra firme populations produced a coumaroylquinic acid that was absent from white-sand populations. We interpret these results as strong evidence that herbivores and resource availability select for divergent types and amounts of defense investment in white-sand and terra firme lineages of Protium subserratum, which may contribute to habitat-mediated speciation in these trees.
ISSN: 0012-9658

hal-01032403
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032403
DOI : 10.1890/12-1920.1

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Volatile terpenes are among the most diverse class of defensive compounds in plants, and they are implicated in both direct and indirect defense against herbivores. In terpenes, both the quantity and the diversity of compounds appear to increase the efficiency of defense as a diverse blend of compounds provides a more efficient protection against a broader range of herbivores and limits the chances that an enemy evolves resistance. Theory predicts that plant defensive compounds should be allocated differentially among tissues according to the value of the tissue, its cost of construction and the herbivore pressure on it. We collected volatile terpenes from bark and leaves of 178 individual tree belonging to 55 angiosperm species in French Guiana and compare the kind, amount, and diversity of compounds in these tissues. We hypothesized that in woody plants, the outermost part of the trunk should hold a more diverse blend of volatile terpenes. Additionally, as herbivore communities associated with the leaves is different to the one associated with the bark, we also hypothesized that terpene blends should be distinct in the bark vs. the leaves of a given species. We found that the mixture of volatile terpenes released by bark is different and more diverse than that released by leaves, both in monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. This supports our hypothesis and further suggests that the emission of terpenes by the bark should be more important for trunk defense than previously thought. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 0031-9422

hal-01032417
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032417
DOI : 10.1016/j.phytochem.2012.07.003

Résumé : Les mécanismes à l’origine du maintien de la forte diversité locale des arbres des forêts tropicales humides constituent encore une énigme pour les scientifiques. Cette thèse a pour but d’étudier et de comprendre certains facteurs biotiques et abiotiques qui influencent l’assemblage des communautés des forêts tropicales humides d’Amazonie. A l’aide d’une approche empirique conduite dans les forêts tropicales de Guyane française et du Loreto au Pérou, de nombreuses expériences de terrain ont été mises en place dans le but d’apporter des éléments de réponse sur les mécanismes impliqués dans le maintien de la diversité des communautés d’arbres et d’insectes des forêts amazoniennes. Dans un premier temps, cette thèse permet de souligner l’importance des pressions biotiques exercées sur les communautés d’arbres. En effet, les communautés d’insectes peuvent influencer la composition des communautés d’arbres le long d’un gradient environnemental conduisant à des compromis entre la défense et la croissance. Ces compromis ou tradeoff permettent de maintenir la coexistence des espèces de forêts tropicales humides en favorisant la spécialisation des arbres à leur habitat (Chapitre 1, Annexe 3). Cependant, de nombreux facteurs peuvent engendrer des variations dans les compromis d’allocation exhibés par les plantes, ce qui peut compliquer la validité de ces résultats. Dans ce sens, nous avons souligné l’influence du rôle de la cascade trophique et l’existence chez certaines espèces d’arbres de stratégies d’évitement des insectes (Chapitre 2). Dans un second temps, nous avons montré que les filtres environnementaux et les distances géographiques favorisent un fort turnover de la composition des arthropodes des forêts tropicales (chapitre 3, Annexe 2). Les résultats de cette étude ont des implications fondamentales sur les mécanismes qui expliquent la structuration des communautés d’insectes herbivores. Nous avons souligné l’importance de l’interaction des communautés des insectes herbivores et de leurs plantes associées. De plus, des prédictions sont présentées sur le degré de spécialisation des insectes à leur plante-hôte (Annexe 3), notamment sur les implications possibles dans les compromis d’allocation chez les plantes. Finalement, des perspectives de recherche sont proposées en vue de poursuivre ces travaux de recherche, et notamment des extensions de mes expériences vers d’autres régions tropicales et tempérées et l’intégration de la phylogénie pour comprendre des mécanismes de coévolution entre communautés d’arbres et insectes. Nous proposons également une intégration des résultats de cette thèse dans les stratégies locales et régionales de conservation des forêts tropicales du bassin amazonien.
The mechanisms underlying the maintenance of local diversity of trees in tropical rainforests remain under debate. This dissertation aims to study and understand some biotic and abiotic factors that may influence both tree and insect community assembly in lowland tropical forests of Amazonia. I used an empirical approach to study communities of trees and insects in tropical forests of French Guiana and Peru, to address the extent to which insect herbivores contribute to the turnover of tree species across strong environmental gradients. In Chapter 1, I studied how herbivorous insect communities can influence the composition of tree communities along an environmental gradient by reinforcing tradeoffs between defense and growth that promote habitat specialization (Chapter 1, Appendix 3). The complicated variation in the patterns of growth and defense from this study led me to pursue further observations of an alternative plant defense strategy of time-avoidance of herbivores, which I examined in detail in Chapter 2. I found evidence for coordinated leaf production in some tree species that was consistent with the satiation of herbivores, suggesting that multiple interactions between plants and their herbivores may be responsible for patterns of habitat specialization in trees. In the second part of the dissertation, I examined insect herbivore communities in detail to test for turnover in species composition across geographic and environmental gradients. In Chapter 3, I present evidence for substantial beta-diversity in arthropod communities throughout lowland Amazonian forests. In the discussion I propose research perspectives to complete this research, including the extension of observations to compare tropical and temperate regions and the integration of molecular phylogenetics information to study coevolution of plant lineages and their insect herbivores. I conclude with suggestions for the integration of the results of this thesis in local and regional strategies for the preservation and conservation of tropical forests in the Amazon basin.

http://www.theses.fr/2013AGUY0582/document

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé :  
The complex structure of tree bark reflects its many functions, which include structural support as well as defence against fire, pests and pathogens. Thick bark, however, might limit respiration by the living tissues of the trunk. Nevertheless, little research has addressed community-level variation in bark thickness, and to the best of our knowledge, no one has tested multiple hypotheses to explain variation in bark thickness. We conducted an extensive survey of bark thickness within and among species of trees in the tropical rain forests of French Guiana. Trunk bark thickness increased by 1.2 mm per 10 cm increase in stem diameter, and varied widely at all taxonomic levels. Mean trunk bark thickness was 4.5 mm (range: 0.5-29 mm), which was less that found in two Amazonian rain forests in previous studies. This survey of bark thickness should be of use for forest management since tree survival through fire is strongly predicted by bark thickness. We combined the survey data with multiple datasets to test several functional hypotheses proposed to explain variation in bark thickness. We found bark to provide an average of 10% of the flexural rigidity of tree stems, which was substantially less than that found in the only other study of bark stiffness. Bark thickness was uncorrelated with species' association with fire-prone habitats, suggesting that the influence of fire on bark thickness does not extend into moist Forests. There was also little evidence that bark thickness is affected by its function as a defence against herbivory. Nor was there evidence that thick bark limits trunk respiration. A re-analysis of previously collected anatomical data indicated that variation in rhytidome (non-conducting outer bark) thickness explains much of the variation in overall bark thickness. As rhytidome is primarily involved in protecting the living tissues of the trunk, we suggest that bark thickness is driven mostly by its defensive function. Functional explanations for the variation in bark thickness were not clear-cut. Nevertheless, this study provides a foundation for further investigation of the functional bases of bark in tropical trees.
ISSN: 0269-8463

hal-01032124
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032124
DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2010.01736.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley Open Access
Résumé : International audience
Plant responses to natural enemies include formation of secondary metabolites acting as direct or indirect defenses. Volatile terpenes represent one of the most diverse groups of secondary metabolites. We aimed to explore evolutionary patterns of volatile terpene emission. We measured the composition of damage-induced volatile terpenes from 202 Amazonian tree species, spanning the angiosperm phylogeny. Volatile terpenes were extracted with solid-phase micro extraction and desorbed in a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for compound identification. The chemical diversity of the terpene blend showed a strong phylogenetic signal as closely related species emitted a similar number of compounds. Closely related species also tended to have compositionally similar blends, although this relationship was weak. Meanwhile, the ability to emit a given compound showed no significant phylogenetic signal for 200 of 286 compounds, indicating a high rate of diversification in terpene synthesis and/or great variability in their expression. Three lineages (Magnoliales, Laurales, and Sapindales) showed exceptionally high rates of terpene diversification. Of the 70 compounds found in >10% of their species, 69 displayed significant correlated evolution with at least one other compound. These results provide insights into the complex evolutionary history of volatile terpenes in angiosperms, while highlighting the need for further research into this important class of compounds.
ISSN: 2045-7758

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01296640
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01296640
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01296640/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01296640/file/ece31810.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/ece3.1810

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
Introduction The Latitudinal Gradient Hypothesis (LGH) foresees that specialized metabolites are overexpressed under low latitudes, where organisms are subjected to higher herbivory pressure. The widespread macroalga Asparagopsis taxiformis is composed of six distinct genetic lineages, some of them being introduced in many regions. Objectives To study (i) metabolic fingerprints of the macroalga and (ii) its bioactivity in space and time, both as proxies of its investment in defensive traits, in order to assess links between bioactivities and metabotypes with macroalgal invasiveness. Methods 289 macroalgal individuals, from four tropical and three temperate regions, were analyzed using untargeted metabolomics and the standardized Microtox (R) assay. Results Metabotypes showed a low divergence between tropical and temperate populations, while bioactivities were higher in temperate populations. However, these phenotypes varied significantly in time, with a higher variability in tropical regions. Bioactivities were high and stable in temperate regions, whereas they were low and much variable in tropical regions. Although the introduced lineage two exhibited the highest bioactivities, this lineage could also present variable proliferation fates. Conclusion The metabolomic approach partly discriminates macroalgal populations from various geographic origins. The production of chemical defenses assessed by the bioactivity assay does not match the macroalgal genetic lineage and seems more driven by the environment. The higher content of chemical defenses in temperate versus tropical populations is not in accordance with the LGH and cannot be related to the invasiveness of the macroalgae.
ISSN: 1573-3882

hal-01681538
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01681538
DOI : 10.1007/s11306-017-1169-z