1. Use of an arboretum and DNA barcoding for the detection and identification of leaf-mining insects on alien woody plantsNatalia I. Kirichenko, Stanislav Gomboc, Barbara Piškur, Maarten De Groot, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: Arboreta serve as effective tools for identifying alien insect pests and novel trophic associations. In this study, we used an arboretum in Slovenia to survey woody plants and identify both alien and native leaf miners. The leaves and twigs of 50 woody plant species and their cultivars were examined for characteristic damage. We used an integrative approach that combined identification based on leaf mines and DNA barcoding of the larvae and pupae found in the mines. In total, 62 leaf-mining species were identified, including eight alien species, of which the heliozelid Coptodisca lucifluella (Clemens, 1860) and the agromyzid Cerodontha unisetiorbita Zlobin, 1992 were documented for Slovenia for the first time. Additionally, three presumably native Gracillariidae moths Phyllocnistis labyrinthella (Bjerkander, 1790), P. ramulicola Langmaid & Corley, 2007 and P. saligna (Zeller, 1839) represented the first record for Slovenia. Furthermore, we documented 23 novel-to-science trophic associations, 20 of which involved native insects and alien woody plants, primarily from Asia. This study highlights the importance of arboreta and botanical gardens for the interception of invasive alien insects and the early detection of trophic shifts of native insects to alien plants, which can aid in predicting their potential spread.
Keywords: botanical garden, sentinels, leaf miners, alien species, non-native trees, novel trophic associations, DNA barcoding, Slovenia
Published in DiRROS: 24.03.2023; Views: 327; Downloads: 148
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2. Timeline of autumn phenology in temperate deciduous treesInge Dox, Jožica Gričar, Lorène Julia Marchand, Sebastien Leys, Paolo Zuccarini, Charly Geron, Peter Prislan, Bertold Mariën, Patrick Fonti, Holger Lange, Josep Peñuelas, Jan Van den Bulcke, Matteo Campioli, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: Cessation of xylem formation or wood growth (CWG) and onset of foliar senescence (OFS) are key autumn phenological events in temperate deciduous trees. Their timing is fundamental for development and survival of trees, ecosystem nutrient cycling, the seasonal exchange of matter and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere and affect the impact and feedback of forests to global change. A large-scale experimental effort and improved observational methods have allowed us to compare the timing of CWG and OFS for different deciduous tree species in Western Europe, in particularly silver birch, a pioneer species, and European beech, a late-succession species, at stands of different latitudes, of different levels of site fertility, and for two years with contrasting meteorological and drought conditions i.e., the low-moderately dry 2017 and the extremely dry 2018. Specifically, we tested whether foliar senescence started before, after or concurrently with CWG. OFS and CWG occurred generally between late September and early November, with larger differences across species and sites for OFS. Foliar senescence started concurrently with CWG in most cases, except for the drier 2018 and, for beech, at the coldest site, where OFS occurred significantly later than CWG. Behavior of beech in Spain, the southern edge of its European distribution, was unclear, with no CWG, but very low wood growth at the time of OFS. Our study suggests that OFS is generally triggered by the same drivers of CWG or when wood growth decreases in late summer, indicating an overarching mechanism of sink limitation as a possible regulator of the timing of foliar senescence.
Keywords: autumn phenology, xylem formation, foliar senescence, cambium, chlorophyll, radial growth, wood, decidiuous trees, common aspen, common beech, pedunculate oak, silver birch
Published in DiRROS: 10.06.2020; Views: 1713; Downloads: 1037
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3. Low growth resilience to drought is related to future mortality risk in treesLucía De Soto, Maxime Cailleret, Frank Sterck, Steven Jansen, Koen Kramer, Elisabeth M.R. Robert, Tuomas Aakala, Mariano M. Amoroso, Christof Bigler, Jesus Julio Camarero, Katarina Čufar, Tom Levanič, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: Severe droughts have the potential to reduce forest productivity and trigger tree mortality. Most trees face several drought events during their life and therefore resilience to dry conditions might be crucial to long-term survival. We assess how growth resilience to severe droughts, including its components resistance and recovery, is related to the ability to survive future droughts by using a tree-ring database of surviving and now-dead trees from 118 sites (22 species, >3,500 trees). We find that, across the variety of regions and species sampled, trees that died during water shortages were less resilient to previous non-lethal droughts, relative to coexisting surviving trees of the same species. In angiosperms, drought-related mortality risk is associated with lower resistance (low capacity to reduce impact of the initial drought), while it is related to reduced recovery (low capacity to attain pre-drought growth rates) in gymnosperms. The different resilience strategies in these two taxonomic groups open new avenues to improve our understanding and prediction of drought-induced mortality. Resilience to drought is crucial for tree survival under climate change. Here, DeSoto et al. show that trees that died during drought were less resilient to previous dry events compared to surviving conspecifics, but the resilience strategies differ between angiosperms and gymnosperms.
Keywords: trees, mortality, gymnosperms, angiosperms, drought, resilience, resistance, recovery
Published in DiRROS: 20.02.2020; Views: 1565; Downloads: 1004
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