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Artificial herbivory on Prunus avium: impacts on physiological leaf traits

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Abstract

Herbivorous insects from diverse feeding guild cause defoliation with different intensity and dissimilar tissue effects. We studied the effects on water relations and morpho-structural and hydraulic traits of Prunus avium leaves caused by two different patterns of artificial herbivory (the window feeding and cut treatments) that mimic the effect of insects such as Caliroa cerasi and lepidopteran larvae. The cut treatment resulted in higher leaf dry mass per area and leaf hydraulic conductance in the remaining tissue in relation to the window feeding treatment and the control. The window feeding treatment increased the tissue elasticity and decrease the stomatal conductance. Although each herbivory pattern affected to different leaf traits, all changes were on traits relevant to drought resistance. These results contribute to improve our understanding on plant–herbivore interactions.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Claudia Mundet and staff of “Bahia Solano S.A.” for permission to access and use the sweet cherry plantation for this study and for logistic support. This work complies with Argentinean Law.

Funding

This study was partially supported by CyT Chubut, Argentina, CONICET (PIP grant), and ANCyT-FONCyT (PICT grants).

Author information

Author notes

  1. María Laura Peschiutta

    Present address: Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, IMBIV- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas (CONICET), Avenida Vélez Sarsfield 1611, Córdoba, Argentina

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Estudios Biofísicos Y Ecofisiológicos (GEBEF), Universidad Nacional de La Patagonia San Juan Bosco (UNPSJB), 9000, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina

    María Laura Peschiutta, Sandra Janet Bucci & Fabián Gustavo Scholz

  2. Instituto de Biociencias de La Patagonia (INBIOP), CONICET-UNPSJB, 9000, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina

    Sandra Janet Bucci & Fabián Gustavo Scholz

  3. Laboratorio de Ecología Funcional (LEF), Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Guillermo Goldstein

  4. Instituto de Ecología, Genética Y Evolución de Buenos Aires. UBA-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Guillermo Goldstein

  5. University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

    Guillermo Goldstein

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  1. María Laura Peschiutta
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  2. Sandra Janet Bucci
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  3. Guillermo Goldstein
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Contributions

MLP, FGS, and GG conceived and designed the experiments. MLP performed the experiments. MLP, FGS, and SJB analyzed the data. MLP, FGS, SJB, and GG wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to María Laura Peschiutta.

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Communicated by Dagmar Voigt.

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Peschiutta, M.L., Bucci, S.J., Goldstein, G. et al. Artificial herbivory on Prunus avium: impacts on physiological leaf traits. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 17, 157–165 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-023-09953-0

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