Abstract
Fertilization can trigger bottom-up effects on crop plant–insect pest interactions. The intensive use of nitrogen fertilizer has been a common practice in rice production, while the yield has long been challenged by the white-backed planthopper, Sogatella furcifera (Horváth). High nitrogen fertilization can facilitate S. furcifera infestation, however, how nitrogen fertilizer leads to high S. furcifera infestation and the nutritional interactions between rice and S. furcifera are poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the effects of various levels of nitrogen fertilizer application (0–350 kg/ha) on rice, and subsequently on S. furcifera performance. We found that higher nitrogen fertilizer application: (1) increases the preference of infestation behaviors (feeding and oviposition), (2) extends infestation time (adult lifespan), and (3) shortens generation reproduction time (nymph, pre-oviposition, and egg period), which explain the high S. furcifera infestation ratio on rice paddies under high nitrogen conditions. Moreover, high nitrogen fertilizer application increased all tested rice physical indexes (plant height, leaf area, and leaf width) and physiological indexes (chlorophyll content, water content, dry matter mass, and soluble protein content), except for leaf thickness, which was reduced. Correlation analysis indicated that the specific rice physical and/or physiological indexes were conducive to the increased infestation behavior preference, extended infestation time, and shortened generation reproduction time of S. furcifera. The results suggested that nitrogen fertilizer triggers bottom-up effects on rice and increases S. furcifera populations. The present study provides an insight into how excess nitrogen fertilization shapes rice–planthopper interactions and the consequent positive effect on S. furcifera infestation.
Highlights
Plant–arthropod interactions are thought of as an important question in ecological research, which can provide insight into the dynamics of ecological communities and the mechanisms that shape interactions in complex food webs [1,2]
Several studies show that the development and survival of herbivore insects could respond negatively to nitrogen inputs to host plants, which undermined the generality of the “nitrogen limitation hypothesis” [19,20,21,22]
We provide an insight into how excess nitrogen fertilization shapes rice–planthopper nutritional interactions and the consequent potential positive effect on S. furcifera infestation
Summary
Plant–arthropod interactions are thought of as an important question in ecological research, which can provide insight into the dynamics of ecological communities and the mechanisms that shape interactions in complex food webs [1,2]. Plant–arthropod interactions can be markedly shaped by bottom-up forces, which are affected by abiotic factors and can in turn influence the performance of insect herbivores [1,3,4,5,6,7]. Plant nutrients could impact the performance of herbivorous insects via changes in plant quality in terms of nutritional and defensive aspects and determine bottom-up effects on plant–insect herbivore interactions. Insufficient nitrogen input to plants was shown to impair the performance of herbivore insects, which was termed the “nitrogen limitation hypothesis” [5,12]. Several studies show that the development and survival of herbivore insects could respond negatively to nitrogen inputs to host plants, which undermined the generality of the “nitrogen limitation hypothesis” [19,20,21,22]
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