Plant invasions can have an impact on local biomes and ecosystems, threatening the diversity of local organisms. As an important component of soil ecosystems, soil nematode communities are affected by invasive plants. However, invasive plants have not completely escaped the feeding hazards of aboveground plant-eating insects in the invasion area, and it is unclear whether the influence of invasive plants on soil nematode communities will be affected by the regulation of above-ground plant-eating insect feeding.
Under the guidance of researcher Huang Wei and Professor Ding Jianqing of Henan University, Liu Jia, a doctoral student in the Invasive Ecology Discipline Group of Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, carried out greenhouse potting experiments using the invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides as experimental materials, and applied three different insect feeding treatments [no insect feeding, specialty insect lotus grass straight chest jumping armor (Agasicles hygrophila) feeding, The broad-feeding insect shrimp pliers are fed by Cassida piperata] and the soil nematode community structure of potted soils is determined on the 1st, 10th and 20th days after treatment. The results showed that insect feeding treatment increased the abundance of hollow lotus grass root surrounding soil nematodes, especially plant-feeding nematodes, but this promotion effect only occurred in the early stage after the end of treatment. Over time, this effect gradually diminishes and disappears completely at a later stage. In addition, there were no significant differences in the effects of specialty and broad-feeding insects. Studies have shown that both aboveground and subsurface biomes need to be considered when assessing the impacts of invasive plants, which is important for a more in-depth and comprehensive exploration and understanding of the effects of plant invasions.
The research work has been funded by the National Key Research and Development Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The research results were published in journal of Plant Ecology under the title of Aboveground herbivory increases soil nematode abundance of an invasive plant.
Effects of different insect feeding treatments on the abundance of nematodes in the soil around the root of hollow lotus grass
Source: Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences