Effect of Elevated CO2 on Domesticated and Wild Plants and Insect Herbivores Performance

• Main Authors: Shu-Lin Huang, 黃淑琳
• Other Authors: Shaw-Yhi Hwang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40868790430313168371

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 昆蟲學系所 === 104 === Climate change refers to greenhouse effect, and carbon dioxide (CO2) is regarded as a main greenhouse gas that results in an increase of involving elevated global temperature. Previous studies have evaluated the effect of elevated CO2 on insect – plant interaction, but focused mainly on woody and cultivated crop plants. Little is known about the effects of elevated CO2 on wild plants. Crop domestication is a process of artificial selection, through that, the plant traits and allelochemistry of crop plants varied from wild relatives and thus may dramatically affect the plant-insect interactions. In present study, we examined the effect of elevated CO2 on Brassicaceae cultivated plant (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L) and wild plant (Rorippa dubia Hara). In addition, to further understand CO2 effects on herbivores, we examined the direct and indirect impact of CO2 on specialist (Pieris rapae crucivora Boisduval) and generalist (Spodoptera litura Fabricius) herbivores performance. The results reveal that elevated CO2 enhanced plant performance and had influence on their nutrients and allelochemistry of wild plant, but not on cultivated plant. In addition, specialist herbivore was not affected by CO2 amount. These results suggest that elevated CO2 and crop domestication are apparently more effective to impact on generalist herbivores. Therefore, in the future elevated carbon dioxide environment, weedy plants might have more effects on the generalist herbivores.