Cornelissen Tatiana, Silveira Fernando A O, Gomes Susan Vieira, Lopez-Goldar Xosé, Martin-Eberhardt Sylvie, Wetzel William
Center for Ecological Synthesis and Conservation, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, 31270-901, Brazil.
Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
New Phytol. 2025 Jul;247(2):884-896. doi: 10.1111/nph.70243. Epub 2025 May 27.
We investigated the impact of leaf color variation on herbivory, testing current hypotheses indicating that leaf color could influence herbivory through bottom-up control (by signaling leaf quality and defenses) or top-down control (by attracting predators). A comprehensive phylogenetic meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effects of leaf color on defense traits, leaf palatability, herbivore fitness, and herbivory. We show that nongreen leaves were better defended, less nutritive, and experienced less herbivory, leading to a reduction in herbivore fitness. Stronger effects of leaf color on herbivory were found in tropical plants, whereas lowered leaf quality in nongreen leaves was found in temperate plants. Increased leaf defense and reduction in insect fitness traits were observed in both temperate and tropical nongreen leaves. Our results indicate that leaf color plays a significant role in shaping plant defenses, leaf nutritive value, and herbivore fitness, ultimately modulating levels of herbivory. This suggests coordination between leaf color, defenses, and quality, which may be responsible for patterns of variation in herbivory and fitness-related traits in herbivores.
我们研究了叶片颜色变化对食草动物取食的影响，检验了当前的假说，即叶片颜色可通过自下而上的控制（通过指示叶片质量和防御能力）或自上而下的控制（通过吸引捕食者）来影响食草动物取食。我们进行了一项全面的系统发育荟萃分析，以评估叶片颜色对防御性状、叶片适口性、食草动物适合度和食草动物取食的影响。我们发现，非绿色叶片的防御能力更强、营养成分更少，遭受的食草动物取食也更少，从而导致食草动物适合度降低。在热带植物中，叶片颜色对食草动物取食的影响更强，而在温带植物中，非绿色叶片的质量较低。在温带和热带的非绿色叶片中均观察到叶片防御能力增强和昆虫适合度性状降低。我们的结果表明，叶片颜色在塑造植物防御、叶片营养价值和食草动物适合度方面发挥着重要作用，最终调节食草动物取食水平。这表明叶片颜色、防御能力和质量之间存在协调关系，这可能是食草动物取食和适合度相关性状变异模式的原因。
