Mentor/s
Professor LaTina Steele
Participation Type
Poster
Abstract
Although the factors leading to successful submerged plant invasions are poorly understood, high levels of chemical feeding deterrents in invasive plant species may be partly responsible. However, chemical deterrents are not always uniformly distributed within plant tissues, and little is known about how that may affect herbivore feeding patterns in aquatic and marine systems. To examine the distribution of phenolics within the tissues of invasive Myriophyllum spicatum and native Ceratophyllum demersum, 2-cm fragments were taken from the apex and middle portions of 10 individuals of each species. A two-way ANOVA showed that phenolic content in M. spicatum plants was significantly higher than in C. demersum but detected no significant differences in phenolics between apical and middle tissues in these species. A no-choice feeding experiment showed that amphipods, the dominant herbivore at our study site, consumed significantly more middle than apical C. demersum tissue and ate very little M. spicatum. A choice feeding experiment confirmed that amphipods preferred the low-phenolic native C. demersum to the phenolic-rich, invasive M. spicatum. Although we expected apical portions of C. demersum to contain more phenolics than middle segments, this was not the case, suggesting that factors other than phenolics contributed to the feeding preferences we observed and that future studies should seek to identify these factors.
College and Major available
Biology
Location
University Commons
Start Day/Time
4-20-2018 1:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-20-2018 3:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Patterns of Amphipod Feeding and Phenolic Content in Apical and Middle Portions of Invasive Myriophyllum spicatum and Native Ceratophyllum demersum
University Commons
Although the factors leading to successful submerged plant invasions are poorly understood, high levels of chemical feeding deterrents in invasive plant species may be partly responsible. However, chemical deterrents are not always uniformly distributed within plant tissues, and little is known about how that may affect herbivore feeding patterns in aquatic and marine systems. To examine the distribution of phenolics within the tissues of invasive Myriophyllum spicatum and native Ceratophyllum demersum, 2-cm fragments were taken from the apex and middle portions of 10 individuals of each species. A two-way ANOVA showed that phenolic content in M. spicatum plants was significantly higher than in C. demersum but detected no significant differences in phenolics between apical and middle tissues in these species. A no-choice feeding experiment showed that amphipods, the dominant herbivore at our study site, consumed significantly more middle than apical C. demersum tissue and ate very little M. spicatum. A choice feeding experiment confirmed that amphipods preferred the low-phenolic native C. demersum to the phenolic-rich, invasive M. spicatum. Although we expected apical portions of C. demersum to contain more phenolics than middle segments, this was not the case, suggesting that factors other than phenolics contributed to the feeding preferences we observed and that future studies should seek to identify these factors.
