Abstract
ABSTRACT Plant-herbivore interactions have directed the evolution of defense mechanisms in plants, which can vary intraspecifically according to environmental quality. This study evaluated variation in the production of antiherbivory defenses in plant species distributed along an environmental gradient of restinga. The study was performed in Parque Estadual Acarai, state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Three species of four plant formations with different abiotic conditions were selected for study. Specific leaf area; water, nitrogen and carbon content; and presence of phenols, tannins, lignin and alkaloids, were evaluated in leaves of ten plants per species per plant formation. The results indicated that Symphyopappus casarettoi possesses Low Nutritional Quality Syndrome, characterized by low specific leaf area, presence of secondary metabolites and low nitrogen content. Dodonaea viscosa and Varronia curassavica possess Nutrition and Defense Syndrome, characterized by a balance between nutritional quality (high nitrogen content and lower C:N ratio) and protection (greater thickness of leaves and higher density of trichomes). The results did not confirm the Resource Availability Hypothesis. The absence of a pattern in antiherbivory response due to the environmental gradient may indicate that the investment in defense by plants is not unidirectional and that certain morpho-anatomical attributes are typically related to conservation of resources.
Highlights
Plant-herbivore interactions have directed the evolution of a diversity of antiherbivory strategies, including morphological, phenological and chemical defenses that protect plants from their natural enemies (Agrawal 2006)
The results indicated that Symphyopappus casarettoi possesses Low Nutritional Quality Syndrome, characterized by low specific leaf area, presence of secondary metabolites and low nitrogen content
The results obtained in this study suggest that S. casarettoi shows characteristic of the Low Nutritional Quality Syndrome, which is characterized by low nutritional value and harder leaves
Summary
Plant-herbivore interactions have directed the evolution of a diversity of antiherbivory strategies, including morphological, phenological and chemical defenses that protect plants from their natural enemies (Agrawal 2006). Plant species differ in their antiherbivory defenses, and can even vary intraspecifically in the types of defense, number of strategies and the degree of efficiency of each defense (Coley 1987; Endara et al 2015). This intraspecific variation is attributed to the set of biotic and abiotic factors that govern the structure and functioning of the community in which the plants are inserted (Cipollini & Bergelson 2001; Boege & Dirzo 2004). Besides preventing the consumption of plant tissues by herbivores, antiherbivory defenses may play secondary roles in plants, such as the control of transpiration by the coverage of the cuticle and/or trichomes (Traw & Dawson 2002; Peeters 2002; Yeats & Rose 2013); protection of organs in development from solar radiation by means of phenolic compounds (Tattini et al 2000; Close & Mcarthur 2002; Treutter 2005); regulation of leaf calcium by the production of calcium oxalate crystals (Nakata 2003; Franceschi & Nakata 2005); and increasing leaf resistance by means of growth of mechanical tissue (Heerdt & Melo Jr. 2016)
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