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Insect herbivory alters impact of atmospheric change on northern temperate forests

Nature Plants volume 1, Article number: 15016 (2015) Cite this article

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Abstract

Stimulation of forest productivity by elevated concentrations of CO2 is expected to partially offset continued increases in anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, multiple factors can impair the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks; prominent among these are tropospheric O3 and nutrient limitations1,2. Herbivorous insects also influence carbon and nutrient dynamics in forest ecosystems, yet are often ignored in ecosystem models of forest productivity. Here we assess the effects of elevated levels of CO2 and O3 on insect-mediated canopy damage and organic matter deposition in aspen and birch stands at the Aspen FACE facility in northern Wisconsin, United States. Canopy damage was markedly higher in the elevated CO2 stands, as was the deposition of organic substrates and nitrogen. The opposite trends were apparent in the elevated O3 stands. Using a light-use efficiency model, we show that the negative impacts of herbivorous insects on net primary production more than doubled under elevated concentrations of CO2, but decreased under elevated concentrations of O3. We conclude that herbivorous insects may limit the capacity of forests to function as sinks for anthropogenic carbon emissions in a high CO2 world.

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Figure 1: Independent and interactive effects of elevated CO2 and O3 on multiple ecosystem processes directly and indirectly mediated by insects.
Figure 2: Relationships between relative influence of CO2 on ANPP and canopy damage and ANPP lost via herbivory and undamaged ε in elevated CO2.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. J. Burton for litter biomass data, K. S. Pregitzer, and A. F. Talhelm for LAI data, M. Kubiske for stand productivity data, P. A. Townsend for support to J.J.C. during the writing of this manuscript, and A. Gusse and K. F. Rubert-Nason for assistance with chemical analyses. Discussions with S. P. Serbin improved the content of the manuscript. Aspen FACE was principally supported by the Office of Science (BER), US Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG02-95ER62125 to Michigan Technological University, Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 to Brookhaven National Laboratory, the US Forest Service Northern Global Change Program and North Central Research Station, Michigan Technological University, and Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service. This research was supported by the Office of Science (BER), U.S. Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG02-06ER64232 and University of Wisconsin Hatch grant WIS04898 to RLL and USDA NIFA AFRI Fellowship grant 2012-67012-19900 to J.J.C.

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  1. J. J. Couture

    Present address: †Present address: Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    J. J. Couture, T. D. Meehan & R. L. Lindroth

  2. Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    E. L. Kruger

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  1. J. J. Couture
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  2. T. D. Meehan
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Contributions

R.L.L. designed the experiment and secured funding for the project; J.J.C. and T.D.M. collected field and laboratory data; J.J.C. and E.L.K. designed and performed the modelling exercise relating canopy damage to forest productivity; J.J.C. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript with the participation of R.L.L., T.D.M. and E.L.K.

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Correspondence to J. J. Couture.

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Couture, J., Meehan, T., Kruger, E. et al. Insect herbivory alters impact of atmospheric change on northern temperate forests. Nature Plants 1, 15016 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.16

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