Pest and disease abundance and dynamics in wheat and oilseed rape as affected by elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations

Publikations-Art

Zeitschriftenbeitrag (peer-reviewed)

Autoren

Oehme, V., Högy, P., Franzaring, J., Zebitz, C.P.W., Fangmeier, A.

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Veröffentlicht in

Functional Plant Biology

Band/Volume

40/

DOI

10.1071/FP12162

Seite (von - bis)

125-136

Future atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations are predicted to increase, and directly affect host-plant phenology, which in turn is assumed to mediate indirectly the performance of herbivorous insects as well as the abundance and epidemiology of plant diseases. In a four-year field experiment, spring wheat and spring oilseed rape were grown using a Mini-FACE (free-air CO₂ enrichment) system, which consisted of a control (CON), an ambient (AMB) and FACE treatments. The CON and AMB treatments did not receive additional CO₂, whereas the FACE plots were moderately elevated by 150 μL L^-1 CO₂. The impact of elevated CO₂ was examined with regard to plant phenology, biomass, leaf nitrogen and carbon, abundance of insect pest species and their relative population growth by either direct counts or yellow sticky traps. Occurrence and damage of plants by pathogens on spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Triso) and oilseed rape (Brassica napus L. cv. Campino) were directly assessed. Disease infestations on plants were not significantly different between ambient and elevated CO₂ in any of the years. Plant phenology, aboveground biomass, foliar nitrogen and carbon concentrations were also not significantly affected by CO₂ enrichment. In contrast, the abundance of some species of insects was significantly influenced by elevated CO₂, showing either an increase or a decrease in infestation intensity.