Biology subjects

Prinzing, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Prinzing, A..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Parasitoids reduce growth rate in oak-feeding caterpillars

O_LIKoinobiont parasitoids have been shown to both reduce and increase the growth rate of caterpillars. However, no comprehensive study has been conducted on all caterpillar hosts of a given plant species. Moreover, most of the existing case studies are on large caterpillars attacking crop plants. This may not be representative of the effect of parasitoids on caterpillar growth on trees. C_LIO_LIWe measured the growth rate of parasitised and non-parasitised spring caterpillars collected from oak trees (Quercus robur & Q. petraea) in France and Poland. C_LIO_LIAcross six species of Lepidoptera, parasitoids reduced caterpillar growth rate on average. C_LIO_LIFurther studies should determine if the reduced growth rate is accompanied by lower consumption rates, so that the plant directly benefits from attracting parasitoids when they are attacked by caterpillars. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Plasticity in plant populations may be constrained by performance costs, complex environments and weakly integrated phenotypes

O_LIBackground and Aims One response of plants to climate warming is plasticity of traits, but plasticity might come at a cost and might be limited by the integration among traits or by simultaneous shift of another environmental condition such as shading. Empirical studies treating simultaneously such costs and limitations of plasticity across populations or maternal lineages within species, and how they depend on the environmental context remain few. C_LIO_LIMethods We studied three plant species from the sub-Antarctic, a region currently facing one of the fastest warming worldwide. For multiple populations or maternal lineages we identified (i) plasticity by exposing seeds from a given source population to different temperature and light treatments, (ii) performance (photosynthesis or morphological performance) and (iii) morphological integration of traits in young plants. C_LIO_LIKey Results We found that plants from more plastic source populations performed poorly. Plants from more integrated source populations were more plastic. Exposure to shade rendered plants less plastic to a warming trend. Moreover, simultaneous shading and warming, rather than sole shading or sole warming, reduced plant performance. C_LIO_LIConclusions Our results suggest that phenotypic integration of intraspecific lineages surprisingly might favour rather than limit plasticity. However, our results also suggest that plasticity in response to climate warming may be limited by parallel increase in shading from other plants including competitors, and itself does not ensure success due to induced performance costs. C_LI

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Drivers of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversities in dominant ground-dwelling arthropods of coastal heathlands

Although functional and phylogenetic diversities are increasingly used in ecology for a large variety of purposes, their relationships remain unclear and likely vary presumably over taxa, yet most recent studies focused on plant communities. Different concepts predict that a community becomes functionally more diverse by adding phylogenetic lineages, subtracting lineages, adding species, reducing or increasing environmental constraints. In this study, we investigated ground-dwelling spider, ground beetle and ant assemblages in coastal heathlands (>11 000 individuals, 216 species), and their estimated functional and phylogenetic diversities as minimum spanning trees using several traits related to the morphology, feeding habits and dispersal of species, and phylogenetic trees, respectively. Correlations were overall positive and high between functional and phylogenetic diversities. Accounting for taxonomic diversities and environments made disappear this relationship in ants, but maintained them in spiders and ground beetles, where taxonomic diversity related to functional diversity only via increasing phylogenetic diversity. Environmental constraints reduced functional diversity in ants, but affected functional diversity only indirectly via phylogenetic diversity (ground beetles) and taxonomic and then phylogenetic diversity (spiders and ground beetles). Results are consistent with phylogenetic conservatism in traits in spiders and ground beetles, while in ants traits appear more neutral with any new species potentially representing a new trait state. Lineage diversities mostly increased with taxonomic diversities, possibly reflecting un-measured environmental conditions.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Search for top-down and bottom-up drivers of latitudinal trends in insect herbivory in oak trees in Europe

AimThe strength of species interactions is traditionally expected to become stronger toward the Equator. However, recent studies have reported opposite or inconsistent latitudinal trends in the bottom-up (plant quality) and top-down (natural enemies) forces driving insect herbivory, possibly because these forces have rarely been studied concomitantly. This makes previous attempts to understand the effect of large scale climatic gradients on insect herbivory unsuccessful. LocationEurope Time period2018-2019 Major taxa studiedQuercus robur MethodsWe used scholar-based citizen science to simultaneously test for latitudinal variation in plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions. We further investigated the underlying climatic factors associated with variation in herbivory, leaf chemistry and attack rates in Quercus robur across its complete latitudinal range in Europe. We quantified insect herbivory and the occurrence of specialist herbivores as well as leaf chemistry and bird attack rates on dummy caterpillars on 261 oak trees. ResultsClimatic factors rather than latitude per se were the best predictors of the large-scale (geographical) variation in the incidence of gall-inducers and leaf-miners as well as of leaf nutritional quality. However, insect herbivory, plant chemical defences (leaf phenolics) and bird attack rates were not influenced by latitude or climatic factors. The incidence of leaf-miners increased with increasing concentrations of hydrolysable tannins and decreased with those of condensed tannins, whereas the incidence of gall-inducers increased with increasing leaf soluble sugar concentration and decreased with increasing leaf C:N ratios. However, neither other traits nor bird attack rates varied with insect herbivory. Main conclusionsThese findings help to refine our understanding of the bottom-up and top-down mechanisms driving geographical variation in plant-herbivore interactions, and urge for further examination of the drivers of insect herbivory on trees.

ecology↗