Department of Biology Education, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Center for Genome Engineering, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon 34047, Republic of Korea.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Mar 10;759:143507. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143507. Epub 2020 Nov 13.
Compositive changes in climatic factors, e.g., carbon dioxide (CO) and precipitation frequency and intensity, affect the strength of species interactions via responses in plants. Therefore, understanding the effects of climate change on plant-herbivore interactions is important to maintain biodiversity as about 70% of insects are herbivorous. However, the interactive effects of CO and precipitation on plants and consequences for herbivores are poorly understood. Here, we examined how elevated CO and increased watering frequency affect the growth and resistance responses of Aristolochia contorta and the growth performance of its specialist herbivore, Sericinus montela. Elevated CO suppressed growth with decreased photosynthesis ability, and increased resistance in plants. In contrast, increased watering frequency partly ameliorated the negative effects of high CO. Growth performance of specialist herbivores decreased under elevated CO condition as a consequence of increased resistance in plants. Due to the significant effects of CO, we suggest that both the quantity and the quality of host plants as a food would decline, and the growth performance of its specialist herbivore might be threatened as climate change progresses.
气候因素（如二氧化碳（CO）和降水频率及强度）的综合变化会通过植物的响应影响物种间的相互作用强度。因此，了解气候变化对植物-食草动物相互作用的影响对于维持生物多样性很重要，因为大约 70%的昆虫是食草动物。然而，CO 升高和降水增加对植物的相互作用影响及其对食草动物的后果还知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了升高的 CO 和增加浇水频率如何影响马兜铃的生长和抗性反应，以及其专食性食草动物 Sericinus montela 的生长性能。升高的 CO 抑制了植物的生长，降低了光合作用能力，并增加了植物的抗性。相比之下，增加浇水频率部分缓解了高 CO 的负面影响。由于植物抗性的增加，专食性食草动物的生长性能在升高的 CO 条件下下降。由于 CO 的显著影响，我们建议随着气候变化的进展，寄主植物作为食物的数量和质量可能会下降，其专食性食草动物的生长性能可能会受到威胁。
