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JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

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Water availability and plant-herbivore interactions.

Po-An Lin¹, Jessica Kansman², Wen-Po Chuang³

¹Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Journal of Experimental Botany

|December 8, 2022

Summary

Water availability impacts plant defenses against herbivores, often increasing resistance but hindering other strategies. Climate change intensifies these effects, highlighting research gaps in combined environmental stresses.

Keywords:

Abiotic stress climate change drought insect herbivore pest plant defense plant volatile resource availability water deficit water stress

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Plant Science
Climate Change Biology

Background:

Water is crucial for plant growth, evolution, and interactions with herbivores.
Fluctuating water availability, exacerbated by climate change, significantly impacts plant-herbivore dynamics.
Understanding future plant-herbivore interactions under varying water conditions is vital for ecology.

Approach:

Synthesized recent discoveries on water availability's effects on plant anti-herbivore defenses.
Examined underlying physiological processes influencing these interactions.
Discussed impacts across individual, community, and evolutionary levels.

Key Points:

Water deficit generally enhances plant resistance and early phenology (escape traits) against herbivory.
Other defense strategies, such as indirect defense and tolerance, are negatively affected by water deficit.
Observed exceptions exist for specific plant-herbivore species pairs.

Conclusions:

Water availability significantly shapes plant-herbivore interactions and drives plant evolution.
There's a critical lack of research on the interactive effects of water stress with other abiotic factors.
Identified knowledge gaps and future research directions for water-plant-herbivore interactions.