New Fieldwork and Lab Experiments are starting

Our team is back in the field and starting new experiments! In these projects, we aim at answering three exciting questions:

Does specificity in scents produced by induced plants affect their communication with predators?
We have previously shown that different insect herbivores elicit differential responses in host-plants. Plants attacked by different herbivores release different volatile compounds under greenhouse conditions. Now we move our experiments in the field! We explore the differences in volatile profiles emitted by two willow species (Salix cinerea and Salix fragilis) induced by extracts from various herbivores. As plant volatiles are involved in communication with predators, we will also explore if the induced differences lead to different rates of predation on branches induced by different herbivore extracts. This experiment will show if the specificity in volatile induction can help plants attract predators more efficiently.

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​How do anti-predator defences of leaf beetles affect their host preference?
​Our previous projects have demonstrated that leaf beetles elicit particularly strong upregulation of volatiles in their host-plants. We thus suspect that volatiles and scents in general play an important role in leaf beetle communication. Some of the leaf beetles not only elicit response in volatiles of their hosts but also produce volatiles of their own. For example, Chrysomela leaf beetles sequester salicylates of their willow hosts to produce salicylaldehyde to repel predators. In this experiment, we want to test how salicylaldehyde affects the host choice of other Chrysomela individuals. Are they going to prefer plants infested by beetles releasing salicylaldehyde or will they be repelled by the smell? We are going to find out and show if anti-predator defences play a role in the communication within the herbivore species.

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How does seasonality and seasonal shifts in host-plant traits affect plant-herbivore food-webs?
This is a second year of our study that explore seasonal shifts in willow-herbivore food-webs. It is becoming increasingly important in our changing world to understand how seasonality affects trophic interactions. This is why we study assemblages of various herbivore guilds associated with willows and analyse temporal trends in them in response to seasonality and shifts in host-plant traits.