By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Life Science Weekly -- Data detailed on Life Science Research - Botany have been presented. According to news reporting out of Bundoora, Australia, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The distribution and abundance of plant species in high mountain ecosystems are thought to depend largely on abiotic factors that play out at both landscape scales (e.g. steep environmental gradients affected by increasing elevation) and local scales (e.g. changes in topography, aspect and canopy cover). However, relatively little attention has been paid to biotic interactions, and how these might also change with landscape-wide and local factors.”
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from La Trobe University, “Ecological interactions between plants and insect herbivores are likely to alter species performance and affect local abundance, but their role in the Australian Alps remains largely unexplored. Here, we examine the prediction that the amount of herbivory on saplings of the dominant high elevation tree, snow gum Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng. (Myrtaceae), are lower at higher elevation because of increasing environmental stress. Using a reciprocal transplant experiment, we tested the prediction that origin of seed (low, mid, high elevation) has less effect on insect herbivory than environmentally-driven changes in plant morphology (height, leaf thickness, specific leaf area). Across all mountains studied, herbivory was best explained by a combination of plant height, canopy openness, leaf thickness and elevation, but not seed origin. This study highlights the individuality of each mountain environment, at landscape and local scales, as well as the complexity of relationships between environmental change, plants and insects.”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Given the factors that best explain herbivory across mountains, herbivory may decrease with decreasing productivity associated with increasing elevation, a trend in broad agreement with hypotheses associating leaf area loss to the availability of resources and plant vigour.”
For more information on this research see: Insect herbivory on snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora, Myrtaceae) saplings near the alpine treeline: the influence of local- and landscape-scale processes. Australian Journal of Botany , 2017;65(6-7):582-592. Australian Journal of Botany can be contacted at: Csiro Publishing, Unipark, Bldg 1, Level 1, 195 Wellington Rd, Locked Bag 10, Clayton, Vic 3168, Australia. (CSIRO Publishing - www.publish.csiro.au; Australian Journal of Botany - http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/65.htm)
Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J.W. Morgan, La Trobe University, Res Center Appl Alpine Ecol, Bundoora, Vic 3086, Australia. Additional authors for this research include S. LeBel, P.T. Green, S.E. Venn and C.D. Dashiell.
The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1071/BT17129. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.
Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC
CITATION: (2018-01-09), New Botany Findings Reported from La Trobe University [Insect herbivory on snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora, Myrtaceae) saplings near the alpine treeline: the influence of local- and landscape-scale processes], Life Science Weekly, 3764, ISSN: 1552-2474, BUTTER® ID: 014973761
From the newsletter Life Science Weekly.
https://www.newsrx.com/Butter/#!Search:a=14973761
NewsRx® offers 195 weekly newsletters providing comprehensive information on all professional topics, ranging from health, pharma and life science to business, tech, energy, law, and finance. Our newsletters report only the most relevant and authoritative information from qualified sources.