Knepp Rachel G, Hamilton Jason G, Mohan Jacqueline E, Zangerl Arthur R, Berenbaum May R, Delucia Evan H
Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61820, USA.
New Phytol. 2005 Jul;167(1):207-18. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2005.01399.x.
By altering foliage quality, exposure to elevated levels of atmospheric CO(2) potentially affects the amount of herbivore damage experienced by plants. Here, we quantified foliar carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content, C : N ratio, phenolic levels, specific leaf area (SLA) and the amount of leaf tissue damaged by chewing insects for 12 hardwood tree species grown in plots exposed to elevated CO(2) (ambient plus 200 microl l(-1)) using free-air CO(2) enrichment (FACE) over 3 yr. The effects of elevated CO(2) varied considerably by year and across species. Elevated CO(2) decreased herbivore damage across 12 species in 1 yr but had no detectable effect in others. Decreased damage may have been related to lower average foliar N concentration and SLA and increased C : N ratio and phenolic content for some species under elevated compared with ambient CO(2). It remains unclear how these changes in leaf properties affect herbivory. Damage to the leaves of hardwood trees by herbivorous insects may be reduced in the future as the concentration of CO(2) continues to increase, perhaps altering the trophic structure of forest ecosystems.
通过改变叶片质量，暴露于高浓度大气二氧化碳环境可能会影响植物遭受的食草动物损害程度。在此，我们对12种硬木树种的叶片碳（C）和氮（N）含量、C:N比、酚类物质含量、比叶面积（SLA）以及被咀嚼式昆虫损害的叶片组织量进行了量化。这些树种种植在通过自由空气二氧化碳富集（FACE）技术使二氧化碳浓度升高（环境浓度加200微升升⁻¹）的样地中，为期3年。高浓度二氧化碳的影响因年份和物种而异：在某一年，高浓度二氧化碳使12个树种遭受的食草动物损害减少，但在其他年份则未检测到明显影响。损害减少可能与某些树种在高浓度二氧化碳环境下平均叶片氮浓度和比叶面积较低、C:N比和酚类物质含量增加有关。目前尚不清楚叶片特性的这些变化如何影响食草动物的取食。随着二氧化碳浓度持续升高，未来食草昆虫对硬木树树叶的损害可能会减少，这或许会改变森林生态系统的营养结构。
