Abstract
Associational effects are a phenomenon in which herbivore damage on co-occurring plant species is influenced by neighboring plants. Mistletoes are a group of shrubs that obtain nutrients from host plants through haustoria. Despite the potential for mistletoe herbivory to be affected by associational effects with their hosts, the effects of host and mistletoe functional traits on mistletoe herbivory have been largely overlooked. This study aimed to evaluate the associational effects of host plants and the direct effects of mistletoe functional traits on mistletoe herbivory. To achieve this, we measured leaf herbivory and leaf traits of three mistletoe species (Dendrophthoe pentandra, Scurrula chingii var. yunnanensis, and Helixanthera parasitica) and their associated 11 host species during both dry and wet seasons. Our results showed that leaf herbivory of D. pentandra and S. chingii var. yunnanensis differed significantly on their respective host species, but H. parasitica did not. The relationships between mistletoe and the paired host herbivory differed between seasons, with a stronger positive relationship observed during the dry season. Furthermore, significant relationships were observed between paired leaf carbon, leaf nitrogen, and condensed tannin in mistletoes and their host plants, indicating that host plants can affect mistletoes' leaf functional traits. A group of mistletoe leaf traits provided significant predictions for leaf herbivory: leaves with higher leaf thickness and leaf total nitrogen showed higher herbivory. Overall, our study reveals that mistletoe leaf herbivory is directly affected by its leaf traits and indirectly affected by host associational effects, primarily through changes in mistletoes' leaf traits.
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The data that support the results of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32270310). We thank Qiaoshun Li from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chines Academy of Sciences (XTBG), as well as Yanjiang Zhu and Ran Yang from Pu’er University for their assistance during field work. We also thank Center for Gardening and Horticulture of XTBG for granting permission and providing support for this study, and the Institutional Center for Shared Technologies and Facilities of XTBG for conducting chemical analysis. Additionally, we extend our gratitude to the two reviewers for their valuable comments, which greatly improved our MS.
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Ling Zhang: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32270310).
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LZ and G S designed the research and collected the data. GS analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript; JC and LZ revised manuscript, and all authors critically approved the manuscript.
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Su, Gf., Chen, J. & Zhang, L. The associational effects of host plant and mistletoe functional traits on leaf herbivory in mistletoe. Oecologia 204, 213–225 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05508-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05508-5