INVESTIGADORES
GARIBALDI Lucas Alejandro
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:
San Carlos de Bariloche
Reunión:
Congreso; VI Southern Connection Congress; 2010
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.