The Effects of Low‐Level Consumption by Canopy Arthropods on the Growth and Nutrient Dynamics of Black Locust and Red Maple Trees in the Southern Appalachians
- 1 October 1983
- Vol. 64 (5), 1040-1048
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1937812
Abstract
The effects of low—level consumption by canopy arthropods on foliage nutrient content, canopy leachates (throughfall), and biomass of 4—yr—old black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and red maple (Acer rubrum) were studied in the southern Appalachians of North Carolina. A carbaryl insecticide was used to reduce foliage consumption from °10 to °2% in black locust and from °4 to °1% in red maple. Phosphorus concentrations in untreated black locust foliage were significantly lower than those of insecticide—treated foliage early in summer, but equalled concentrations of treated foliage by late summer. Potassium concentrations in untreated red maple foliage were significantly reduced during late summer; calcium concentrations in untreated red maple foliage were significantly higher later in the summer. Potassium in throughfall from black locus trees (amount of K collected below the canopy minus bulk precipitation inputs) increases from 5.7 kg/ha for insecticide—protected trees to 9.8 kg/ha for unprotected trees (P < .05). Potassium lossesw from unprotected red maple also increased. Black locust lost 0.3 kg/ha of sulfate—S from untreated trees, but adsorbed 0.4 kg/ha of sulfate—S in insecticide—treated trees (P < .05). Total biomass production (net primary production per kilogram of preseason biomass) was unaffected by the low levels of herbivory observed here. Such nominal herbivory did not stimulate biomass and nutrient accretion by these tree species but did increase the cycling of K and perhaps other elements within these systems.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Grazing as an Optimization Process: Grass-Ungulate Relationships in the SerengetiThe American Naturalist, 1979
- Tree Ring Evidence for Chronic Insect Suppression of Productivity in Subalpine EucalyptusScience, 1978
- The Influence of Dasychira pudibunda (Lepidoptera) on Plant Nutrient Transports and Tree Growth in a Beech Fagus sylvatica Forest in Southern SwedenOikos, 1978
- The Effect of a Consumer, Phytomyza ilicis, on Seasonal Leaf-Fall in the Holly, Ilex AquifoliumOikos, 1978
- Analysis of a North Dakota Gallery Forest: Nutrient, Trace Element and Productivity RelationsOikos, 1978
- Seasonal Nutrient Dynamics in the Vegetation on a Southern Appalachian WatershedAmerican Journal of Botany, 1977
- The Nutrient Content of Tree Stem Flow and Ground Flora Litter and Leachates in a Sessile Oak (Quercus Petraea) WoodlandJournal of Ecology, 1967
- The Organic Matter and Nutrient Elements in the Precipitation Beneath a Sessile Oak (Quercus Petraea) CanopyJournal of Ecology, 1966
- Canopy and litter interception of rainfall by hardwoods of eastern United StatesWater Resources Research, 1965
- The Effects of the Carbamate Insecticide Carbaryl upon Forest Soil Mites and Collembola1Journal of Economic Entomology, 1964