Plant-insect interactions patterns in three European paleoforests of the late-Neogene—early-Quaternary
Résumé
Plants and insects are constantly interacting in complex ways through forest
communities since hundreds of millions of years. Those interactions are often
related to variations in the climate. Climate change, due to human activities, may
have disturbed these relationships in modern ecosystems. Fossil leaf assemblages
are thus good opportunities to survey responses of plant–insect interactions to
climate variations over the time. The goal of this study is to discuss the possible
causes of the differences of plant–insect interactions’ patterns in European
paleoforests from the Neogene–Quaternary transition. This was accomplished
through three fossil leaf assemblages: Willershausen, Berga (both from the late
Neogene of Germany) and Bernasso (from the early Quaternary of France). In
Willershausen it has been measured that half of the leaves presented insect
interactions, 35% of the fossil leaves were impacted by insects in Bernasso and only
25% in Berga. The largest proportion of these interactions in Bernasso were
categorized as specialist (mainly due to galling) while in Willershausen and Berga
those ones were significantly more generalist. Contrary to previous studies, this
study did not support the hypothesis that the mean annual precipitation and
temperature were the main factors that impacted the different plant–insect
interactions’ patterns. However, for the first time, our results tend to support that
the hydric seasonality and the mean temperature of the coolest months could be
potential factors influencing fossil plant–insect interactions.
Origine | Publication financée par une institution |
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