Department of Biology, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Marine Research INMAR, University of Cadiz, International Campus of Excellence of the Sea (CEIMAR), 11510, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
Department of Biology, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Marine Research INMAR, University of Cadiz, International Campus of Excellence of the Sea (CEIMAR), 11510, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
Mar Environ Res. 2024 May;197:106443. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106443. Epub 2024 Mar 15.
Natural disturbances can produce a mosaic of seagrass patches of different ages, which may affect the response to herbivory. These pressures can have consequences for plant performance. To assess how seagrass patch age affects the response to herbivory, we simulated the effect of herbivory by clipping leaves of Halodule wrightii in patches of 2, 4 and 6 years. All clipped plants showed ability to compensate herbivory by increasing leaf growth rate (on average 4.5-fold). The oldest patches showed resistance response by increasing phenolic compounds (1.2-fold). Contrastingly, the concentration of phenolics decreased in the youngest patches (0.26-fold), although they had a similar leaf carbon content to controls. These results suggest that younger plants facing herbivory pressure reallocate their phenolic compounds towards primary metabolism. Results confirm the H. wrightii tolerance to herbivory damage and provides evidence of age-dependent compensatory responses, which may have consequences for seagrass colonization and growth in perturbed habitats.
自然干扰会产生不同年龄的海草斑块镶嵌体，这可能会影响对食草动物的反应。这些压力可能会对植物的表现产生影响。为了评估海草斑块的年龄如何影响对食草动物的反应，我们通过在 2、4 和 6 岁的海草斑块上剪去叶片来模拟食草动物的影响。所有被剪去叶片的植物都表现出通过增加叶片生长速度（平均增加 4.5 倍）来补偿食草动物的能力。最老的斑块通过增加酚类化合物（增加 1.2 倍）表现出抵抗反应。相比之下，最年轻的斑块中酚类化合物的浓度下降（下降 0.26 倍），尽管它们的叶片碳含量与对照相似。这些结果表明，面临食草动物压力的年轻植物会将酚类化合物重新分配到初级代谢中。研究结果证实了 H. wrightii 对食草动物损害的耐受性，并提供了年龄依赖性补偿反应的证据，这可能对受干扰生境中海草的定殖和生长产生影响。
