Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors
Accumulation of heavy metals by plants can serve as a defence against herbivory. Herbivores, in turn, may avoid feeding on contaminated tissues. Such avoidance, however, may hinge upon the specific conditions faced by herbivores. Here, we tested whether the spider mite Tetranychus urticae avoids tom...
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2024-07-01
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| Series: | Peer Community Journal |
| Online Access: | https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.435/ |
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| author | Godinho, Diogo Prino Fragata, Inês de la Masseliere, Maud Charlery Magalhães, Sara |
| author_facet | Godinho, Diogo Prino Fragata, Inês de la Masseliere, Maud Charlery Magalhães, Sara |
| author_sort | Godinho, Diogo Prino |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accumulation of heavy metals by plants can serve as a defence against herbivory. Herbivores, in turn, may avoid feeding on contaminated tissues. Such avoidance, however, may hinge upon the specific conditions faced by herbivores. Here, we tested whether the spider mite Tetranychus urticae avoids tomato plants contaminated with cadmium in presence of conspecifics or heterospecifics and depending on the frequency of contaminated plants. We show that individual spider mite females do not preferentially move to leaf tissues with or without cadmium, despite clear costs on their performance. However, in a set-up where 200 mites were simultaneously given the choice between four plants with or without cadmium, they collectively avoided plants with cadmium, irrespective of the proportion of plants with cadmium. In addition, T. urticae did not discriminate between plants infested with its competitor T. evansi and other uncontaminated plants but they preferred plants with competitors when the other plants contained cadmium. Our results show that aggregation may facilitate avoidance of contaminated plants. They also indicate that cadmium accumulation in plants is a stronger selective pressure than interspecific competition with T. evansi. Therefore, collective avoidance of metal-accumulating plants by herbivores is robust to environmental conditions and may have important consequences for species distribution and interactions in metal contaminated sites. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5eb889f1f3094296a0e4256cfd765ef7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2804-3871 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-07-01 |
| publisher | Peer Community In |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Peer Community Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-5eb889f1f3094296a0e4256cfd765ef72025-02-07T10:17:18ZengPeer Community InPeer Community Journal2804-38712024-07-01410.24072/pcjournal.43510.24072/pcjournal.435Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors Godinho, Diogo Prino0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6890-5573Fragata, Inês1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6865-1510de la Masseliere, Maud Charlery2Magalhães, Sara3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8609-7768cE3c, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental changes & CHANGE, - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C2, Campo Grande 1749- 016 Lisbon, Portugal.cE3c, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental changes & CHANGE, - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C2, Campo Grande 1749- 016 Lisbon, Portugal.cE3c, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental changes & CHANGE, - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C2, Campo Grande 1749- 016 Lisbon, Portugal.cE3c, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental changes & CHANGE, - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C2, Campo Grande 1749- 016 Lisbon, Portugal.Accumulation of heavy metals by plants can serve as a defence against herbivory. Herbivores, in turn, may avoid feeding on contaminated tissues. Such avoidance, however, may hinge upon the specific conditions faced by herbivores. Here, we tested whether the spider mite Tetranychus urticae avoids tomato plants contaminated with cadmium in presence of conspecifics or heterospecifics and depending on the frequency of contaminated plants. We show that individual spider mite females do not preferentially move to leaf tissues with or without cadmium, despite clear costs on their performance. However, in a set-up where 200 mites were simultaneously given the choice between four plants with or without cadmium, they collectively avoided plants with cadmium, irrespective of the proportion of plants with cadmium. In addition, T. urticae did not discriminate between plants infested with its competitor T. evansi and other uncontaminated plants but they preferred plants with competitors when the other plants contained cadmium. Our results show that aggregation may facilitate avoidance of contaminated plants. They also indicate that cadmium accumulation in plants is a stronger selective pressure than interspecific competition with T. evansi. Therefore, collective avoidance of metal-accumulating plants by herbivores is robust to environmental conditions and may have important consequences for species distribution and interactions in metal contaminated sites.https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.435/ |
| spellingShingle | Godinho, Diogo Prino Fragata, Inês de la Masseliere, Maud Charlery Magalhães, Sara Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors Peer Community Journal |
| title | Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors
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| title_full | Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors
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| title_fullStr | Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors
|
| title_full_unstemmed | Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors
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| title_short | Spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors
|
| title_sort | spider mites collectively avoid plants with cadmium irrespective of their frequency or the presence of competitors |
| url | https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.435/ |
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