Ecosystem engineering and manipulation of host plant tissues by the insect borer Oncideres albomarginata chamela |
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| Institution: | 1. Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico;2. Departamento de Ecología, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico;3. Cátedras CONACYT-Instituto de Investigaciones sobre los Recursos Naturales, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Mexico;4. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico;1. Department of Materials and Applied Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University, Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo 101-8308, Japan;2. Division of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan;3. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University of Science, Okayama 700-0005, Japan;1. ProSci Incorporated, Poway, CA 92064, USA;2. Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA;1. Department of Physics, Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India;2. Department of Physics, Loyola College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India;1. Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, Universitetskaya nab. 1, 199034, St.-Petersburg, Russia;2. Smolensk State University, Przhevalskogo st. 4, 214000, Smolensk, Russia;1. Biologie I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany;2. Institute of Functional Genomics, University of Regensburg, Josef-Engert-Str. 9, D-93051 Regensburg, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Ecosystem engineering by insect herbivores occurs as the result of structural modification of plants manipulated by insects. However, only few studies have evaluated the effect of these modifications on the plant responses induced by stem-borers that act as ecosystem engineers. In this study, we evaluated the responses induced by the herbivory of the twig-girdler beetle Oncideres albomarginata chamela (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) on its host plant Spondias purpurea (Anacardiaceae), and its relationship with the ecosystem engineering process carried out by this stem-borer. Our results demonstrated that O. albomarginata chamela branch removal induced the development of lateral branches increasing the resources needed for the development of future insect generations, of its own offspring and of many other insect species. Detached branches represent habitats with high content of nitrogen and phosphorous, which eventually can be incorporated into the ecosystem, increasing nutrient cycling efficiency. Consequently, branch removal and the subsequent plant tissue regeneration induced by O. albomarginata chamela represent key mechanisms underlying the ecosystem engineering process carried out by this stem-borer, which enhances arthropod diversity in the ecosystem. |
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| Keywords: | Ecosystem engineering Cerambycidae Twig-girdling Plant–insect interactions Compensatory regrowth responses Nutrient cycling |
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