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Elevated CO 2 affects the interactions between aphid pests and host plant flowering
Author(s) -
Awmack Caroline S.,
Harrington Richard
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
agricultural and forest entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.755
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1461-9563
pISSN - 1461-9555
DOI - 10.1046/j.1461-9563.2000.00050.x
Subject(s) - biology , aphid , host (biology) , aphididae , botany , agronomy , ecology , homoptera , pest analysis
Summary 1 Broad beans ( Vicia faba L.) were grown at either ambient (350 μL/L) or elevated (700 μL/L) CO 2 . Elevated CO 2 increased shoot weight by 14% and root weight by 24% compared to ambient, but did not affect flowering. 2 A single pea aphid ( Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris)) and its progeny decreased shoot and root weights by 20 and 24%, respectively, at ambient CO 2 after 20 days, but did not affect flower number. At elevated CO 2 A. pisum decreased shoot and root weights by 27 and 34% and flower number decreased by 73%. 3 A single glasshouse and potato aphid ( Aulacorthum solani (Kaltenbach)) and its progeny had no effect on the growth of bean plants after 20 days at ambient CO 2 . At elevated CO 2 , A. solani decreased shoot and root weights by 20 and 18%, and flower number by 60%. 4 The large reduction in flowering caused by aphids at elevated CO 2 suggests a change in resource allocation within the plants to compensate for aphid infestation. 5 Aphid density was unaffected by elevated CO 2 , although there were significant effects of CO 2 on the resulting population structure of both A. pisum and A solani . We suggest that at elevated CO 2 , aphids appear not to achieve their maximum reproductive potential and their populations are limited by the lower carrying capacity of their host plants.