INVESTIGADORES
KITZBERGER Thomas
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Geographical patterns in folivory across insect guilds in Nothofagus pumilio correlates with temperature and leaf traits
Autor/es:
GARIBALDI, L.A.; KITZBERGER, T.; CHANETON, E.J.; MAZÍA, C.N.; RUGGIERO, A.
Lugar:
Bariloche
Reunión:
Congreso; VI Southern Connection Congress; 2010
Institución organizadora:
Southern Connection
Resumen:
Abiotic conditions and leaf traits may regulate folivory patterns across scales. However, guild-specific responses to these controls along major environmental gradients are not clear. We studied spatial variation in folivory by different insect guilds in Nothofagus pumilio forests along its entire geographic range in Argentina (38-55º S, 66-73º W, 0-1700 m a.s.l.). In these forests, temperature may be suboptimal for insects and thus spatial changes in temperature may affect insect survival and folivory rates. We expected that better climatic insulation in concealed feeding guilds (gallers, miners, leaf tiers) may promote a weaker response to temperature changes than in external feeding guilds (pit feeders, skeletonizers, chewers, suckers, bud feeders). We found that leaf damage frequency decreased with forest elevation and latitude for all insect guilds. Overall, leaf damage was positively related with mean annual temperature. Although the strength of this association varied across insect guilds (and thus guild composition across sites), there was no consistent differential response between internal and external feeding strategies. Similarly, leaf size was positively correlated with leaf damage by all insect guilds. We suggest that geographical variation in folivory rates may be controlled by abiotic and biotic factors that consistently impact on different insect guilds. Ours results have implications to understand the effects of climate change on insect herbivory.