Linkages between the functional traits of plants and insect herbivores drive community assembly patterns

Monday, November 14, 2022

8:36 AM – 8:48 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 121

Presenting Author(s)

Robert F. Grosdidier

MS Student
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

Co-Author(s)

PH

Philip G. Hahn

Assistant Professor
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

A longstanding question in ecology has concerned how species in communities partition resources to coexist. Trait matching, or the process of identifying functional traits that mediate linkages between species, is a promising avenue for furthering understanding of the mechanisms that structure communities. For example, linkages between plant leaf traits such as leaf toughness and insect herbivore traits such as incisor strength would indicate that feeding interactions are important for structuring communities. Differences among herbivore species in their trait values may therefore influence their feeding niche, thereby enabling multiple species to coexist through partitioning their feeding niches. Here, we establish linkages between various grasshopper species and their feedings niches, quantified as the average functional trait values of plant species consumed using experimental mesocosms. The mesocosms consist of an insect rearing cage containing cuttings of 12 plant species, with each cage stocked with one grasshopper of 10 test species, replicated 10 times per species per sex. Grasshopper feeding preferences were evaluated by estimating damage on each plant after three days and the feeding niche of grasshopper species was quantified as the average value of leaf toughness consumed by the grasshopper. We expect grasshoppers with stronger incisors to feed more heavily on plant species with tougher leaves. This linkage demonstrates how grasshopper species with specific feeding traits partition resources by interacting with different plant species based on their functional traits. Using the knowledge gained from this experiment, we can make informed predictions about how communities assemble by measuring species trait values.