Název: Ecological interactions of herbivory and predation in various terrestrial ecosystems
Autoři: MARAIA, Heveakore
Typ dokumentu: Disertační práce
Rok: 2025
Jazyk: eng
Abstrakt: My thesis investigates ecological interactions, especially herbivory and predation related to herbivorous insect along gradients in various terrestrial ecosystems - including islands vs. mainland, along latitudinal gradient in tropical and temperate forests, and in their vertical gradients, and finally in fire-mammal dominated ecosystems in subtropical savanna. The thesis examines tri-trophic interactions, specifically within plants, arthropod herbivores, and insectivorous predator dynamics, to explore how both biotic (top-down as well as bottom-up) and abiotic factors influence herbivory patterns. Through manipulative experiments, multi-site and multi-trophic studies, the research provides novel and valuable insights into the roles of plant defences, clines in herbivory, herbivory rate and accumulation and seasonality affecting herbivory damage. The first chapter (Chapter I) evaluates the effects of vertebrate and invertebrate predators on herbivory across elevational gradients on island vs. mainland, where plant defences are expected to play different roles. Chapter I reveals that vertebrate predators are more effective in controlling herbivory damage on islands than on the mainland. The second chapter (Chapter II) examines how seasonality, microclimate, and leaf traits influence insect herbivory along a vertical gradient in a tropical rainforest of Papua New Guinea. The novelty of this chapter is in the focus on herbivory rate on marked leaves, revisited for nearly a year, along a complete vertical gradient in tropical forest. The third chapter (Chapter III) investigates insect herbivory in a South African savanna-forest mosaic, highlighting how herbivory caused by chewing and mining insects varies with plant traits, mammal herbivores' density, and fire frequency across rainfall gradients. Very importantly, this chapter represents one of very few studies focusing on insect herbivory in savanna, finding it to be an important yet neglected topic. The final chapter (Chapter IV) explores insect herbivory across a latitudinal gradient, emphasising the varying effects of seasonality in temperate and tropical forests. Chapter IV represents a robust study rejecting the hypothesis, that insect herbivory is stronger/higher in tropical than in temperate forests. In Chapter IV, I argue that difference needs to be made between studies surveying standing herbivory vs. herbivory rate. Overall, my thesis study enhances the understanding of complex ecological interactions between herbivorous insect and plants and deepens our knowledge of how environmental factors shape the interplay between them and between the predators of insect, and the overall role of herbivory of terrestrial ecosystems. Besides other contributions to science, the thesis provides measures of standing herbivory damage and herbivory rates for many woody plant species, from various parts of the globe, representing thus another valuable contribution to other researchers.
Klíčová slova: altitudinal gradient; arthropod herbivory damage; arthropods; chewing herbivores; exclosure experiments; forest types; Insect herbivory; insect herbivory; insect-plant interactions; Kakoba Research Crane; latitudinal gradient; leaf chewers; leaf miners; mainland; New Guinea's tropical rainforest; oceanic islands; Papua New Guinea; plant species diversity; Plant-herbivore interactions; predation pressure; predator exclusion; savanna-forest mosaic; scientific research cranes; seasonality; South Africa ungulates; temperate forests; tri-trophic interactions; vertical forest gradients
Citace: MARAIA, Heveakore. Ecological interactions of herbivory and predation in various terrestrial ecosystems. České Budějovice, 2025. disertační práce (Ph.D.). JIHOČESKÁ UNIVERZITA V ČESKÝCH BUDĚJOVICÍCH. Přírodovědecká fakulta

Instituce: Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích (web)
Informace o dostupnosti dokumentu: Plný text je dostupný v digitálním repozitáři JČU.
Původní záznam: http://www.jcu.cz/vskp/77691

Trvalý odkaz NUŠL: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-671023


Záznam je zařazen do těchto sbírek:
Školství > Veřejné vysoké školy > Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích
Vysokoškolské kvalifikační práce > Disertační práce