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Plant - invertebrate herbivore interactions on intra- and interspecific level
Kuglerová, Marcela ; Münzbergová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Burešová, Renáta (referee)
Plants have been interacting with herbivores for several hundred million years. Herbivores consume a large portion of biomass produced by plants. In response to herbivore attacks, plants have evolved a diverse complex of direct and indirect defenses to reduce herbivory and the impacts on plant performance. This bachelor thesis is focused on plant-herbivore interactions especially on different ways of plant defense of terrestrial ecosystems against invertebrates herbivores. This thesis is dealing with costitutive defenses a well as induce defenses that occur after herbivore attack. Plant defenses can be also categorized into three categories of resistance, tolerance and phenological escape. Mechanical, chemical and visual defenses are discussed in detail as mechanisms of resistance. Apart from defense mechanisms distinguishing individual species this study review intraspecific variability in plant defense against herbivores caused by different habitats in which plant grow or originate and plant size or variation in composition of secondary metabolites. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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The role of biotic interactions in population biology of meadow plants
Janovský, Zdeněk ; Herben, Tomáš (advisor) ; Lepš, Jan (referee) ; Ehrlen, Johan (referee)
In present thesis, I treat the topic of impacts of plant-animal interactions, namely herbivory and pollination, on plant life cycle and lifetime fitness. First, I identify the components of the impact of plant-animal interactions: i) interaction frequency; ii) per-interaction effect; iii) sensitivity of the plant's life cycle to the changes in vital rate impacted by the animals. Furthermore, I also classify other causes changing the outcome of a plant-animal interaction into two categories: i) plant's traits; ii) plant's environment. A review of extant literature on the topic revealed that especially the role of plant's environment in changing the outcome of plant-animal interactions is largely understudied and I attempt to reduce this gap in knowledge in the five detailed studies encompassed in this thesis. The detailed studies focus on a model system of Central European wet grasslands and especially on three species typical to it: Succisa pratensis, Achillea millefolium and A. ptarmica. The first two studies examine the effects of environment on frequency of plant- animal interactions. The next two studies are more integrative, one focusing on the impacts of different herbivore groups on the complete life cycle and the other on interaction of herbivory and pollination on plant lifetime fitness....
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The impact of herbivores on plant population dynamics: The importance for biological control of invasive plants
Šulcová, Hana ; Dostál, Petr (advisor) ; Kindlmann, Pavel (referee)
Herbivory is one of the most important relations between plants and animals. The herbivores affect plant populations not only by grazing, but also by trampling and disturbing the vegetation. Herbivores have also great potential to affect the population dynamics of particular plant species. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effect of herbivores on plant population dynamics and to interpret it in relation to biological control of invasive plants. When evaluating the effect of herbivores, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that herbivores don't affect only plants but also each other through direct as well as indirect competition. The use of different herbivore species to supress the invasive plants may not necessarily be effective. The range of the effect of herbivores on plant population dynamics depends also on the environmental conditions. Habitats with infrequent disturbances and high competition levels among plants increase the effect of biological control, because high competition facilitates competitive exlusion of the target plant species. Different life-histories of plants play are also important in terms of biological control mainly the life-span and the endurance of the seed bank affect the results. Monocarpic species with short-lived seed bank can be relatively easily reduced by...
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Plant traits determining plant-herbivore interactions
Medová, Tereza ; Münzbergová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Skuhrovec, Jiří (referee)
Plants are constantly endangered by herbivores. Plants have adapted and created a wide arsenal of defences during approximately 410 million years of coexistence. Their role consists of fading the herbivores off or reduce suffered damage. This bachelor's thesis focuses on mechanisms that were proven to serve as plant defences. It is specifically about interactions between invertebrate herbivores and plants of terrestrial ecosystems. Prediction of herbivory by some traits is mentioned as well. Information about characteristics of plants which affects preferences of herbivores is interesting due to its possibility of aplication in agriculture or biological control of invasive species. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Interactions of herbivore funtion gourps and Succisa pratensis
Šulcová, Hana ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Roubíčková, Alena (referee)
Herbivory is one of most important factors which form meadow ecosystems. These ecological communities have one of the biggest variety of species in Central Europe and their research is important in terms of management of protected species as well. Localities which has a similar importance, is also a meadow ecosystem with occurrence of Succisa pratensis, the only host plant for rare butterfly Euphydryas aurinia. Research of Succisa and its other herbivores can improve a protection of this particular butterfly. Effects of herbivores of Succisa were examined by several experiments. The first one was a field cage experiment. Its aim was to detect what kinds of herbivores (rodents and invertebrates) are involved in herbivory of leaf rosettes of Succisa and what is their impact on the fitness of these plants. The intensity of herbivory of Succisa was measured for over two vegetation seasons on the month bases. In this experiment were also examined effects of surrounding vegetation on the studied plants of Succisa. The second experiment was performed in a garden. Its aim was to clarify the role of herbivores of leaf rosettes, stalks and their interactions on the fitness of Succisa. The third experiment was concerned to true bugs, which are pre-dispersal predators of seeds of Succisa. Their effects on...
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The role of biotic interactions in population biology of meadow plants
Janovský, Zdeněk
In present thesis, I treat the topic of impacts of plant-animal interactions, namely herbivory and pollination, on plant life cycle and lifetime fitness. First, I identify the components of the impact of plant-animal interactions: i) interaction frequency; ii) per-interaction effect; iii) sensitivity of the plant's life cycle to the changes in vital rate impacted by the animals. Furthermore, I also classify other causes changing the outcome of a plant-animal interaction into two categories: i) plant's traits; ii) plant's environment. A review of extant literature on the topic revealed that especially the role of plant's environment in changing the outcome of plant-animal interactions is largely understudied and I attempt to reduce this gap in knowledge in the five detailed studies encompassed in this thesis. The detailed studies focus on a model system of Central European wet grasslands and especially on three species typical to it: Succisa pratensis, Achillea millefolium and A. ptarmica. The first two studies examine the effects of environment on frequency of plant- animal interactions. The next two studies are more integrative, one focusing on the impacts of different herbivore groups on the complete life cycle and the other on interaction of herbivory and pollination on plant lifetime fitness....
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Plant-soil feedback and its interactions with other factors determining plant coexistence
Opravilová, Tereza ; Kuťáková, Eliška (advisor) ; Čuda, Jan (referee)
Plant-soil feedback has been a well-studied mechanism in recent years of the success of invasive plants, the shift of species in succession, and the structure of plant communities in general. It is a process during which the plant affects the soil with its growth and these changes are reflected in the growth of other plants. Despite the large number of previous studies, relatively little attention is paid to the interaction of plant-soil feedback with other factors, which I consider important for understanding its role in natural plant communities. The aim of the work was to clarify the influence of plant-soil feedback on model species Arrhenatherum elatius and Centaurea scabiosa and to compare its influence with other factors - interspecific competition and herbivory (simulated loss of aboveground biomass). The influence of factors was investigated using biomass and changes in plant physiology, specifically chlorophyll fluorescence and the content of elements in aboveground biomass. The plant-soil feedback mechanism of the model species was assessed using the content of elements in the soil after cultivation. In the biomass of the species Arrhenatherum elatius, the factors of plant-soil feedback and competition manifested themselves in mutual interaction, when the presence of a competitor changed...
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The role of biotic interactions in population biology of meadow plants
Janovský, Zdeněk
In present thesis, I treat the topic of impacts of plant-animal interactions, namely herbivory and pollination, on plant life cycle and lifetime fitness. First, I identify the components of the impact of plant-animal interactions: i) interaction frequency; ii) per-interaction effect; iii) sensitivity of the plant's life cycle to the changes in vital rate impacted by the animals. Furthermore, I also classify other causes changing the outcome of a plant-animal interaction into two categories: i) plant's traits; ii) plant's environment. A review of extant literature on the topic revealed that especially the role of plant's environment in changing the outcome of plant-animal interactions is largely understudied and I attempt to reduce this gap in knowledge in the five detailed studies encompassed in this thesis. The detailed studies focus on a model system of Central European wet grasslands and especially on three species typical to it: Succisa pratensis, Achillea millefolium and A. ptarmica. The first two studies examine the effects of environment on frequency of plant- animal interactions. The next two studies are more integrative, one focusing on the impacts of different herbivore groups on the complete life cycle and the other on interaction of herbivory and pollination on plant lifetime fitness....
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The role of insect herbivory in plant population dynamics - a case study of the Lycaenidae family
Barusová, Anna ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Sedláček, Ondřej (referee)
Herbivory is one of the key interactions of plants, which can result in important consequences for their population dynamics and which can also exert selection pressure on evolution of their traits. This bachelor thesis is concerned with insect herbivore influence on plants at the levels of individuals and population dynamics. It also focuses on interactions of occurrence of herbivory with environmental conditions. This is demonstrated on the family Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera) which is highly specialized in terms of host plants with several cases of coevolution having been described. Some Lycaenid species also evolved associations with ants probably, which help to increase their range of host plants. The relationship of feeding strategies and myrmecophily is illustrated on Czech species of Lycaenidae. The last part focuses on the Great Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) and its European-wide declining monophagous herbivore Dusky Large Blue (Phengaris nausithous), their ecology and conservation. Ecology of this study system will be the main topic of the intended master thesis.
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Factors affecting population dynamics of endangered plant species Dianthus arenarius subsp. bohemicus
Sejrková, Petra ; Dostálek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Ekrtová, Ester (referee)
This diploma's thesis deals with critically endangered species Dianthus arenarius subsp. bohemicus from family Caryophyllaceae. Its distribution range is now limited on its last natural locality in National natural monument Kleneč. As a result of the change in land use (especially the abandonment of grazing), there was a significant reduction in its population size at the end of the 20th century and it was close to extinction. That is why action plan for species conservation was approved, which included number of management interventions at the locality. The most important was the removal of the upper humus horizon, which aims to create free gaps in the sand that allow the emergence and growth of new plants of D. arenarius subsp. bohemicus. The study species is also attacked by herbivores and it was predicted that increasing population might be endangered with increased herbivore population. The aim of this thesis is therefore to describe the population dynamics of the species, to evaluate the effect of the management and to determine how the herbivory affects the population dynamics of the species. The population growth rate decreases over time with vegetation succession. Even eight years after removal the population is still growing. The population growth rate is most affected by change in...
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