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Editorial
. 2021;32(4):1337-1349.
doi: 10.1007/s11676-020-01287-4. Epub 2021 Jan 10.

Ozone disrupts the communication between plants and insects in urban and suburban areas: an updated insight on plant volatiles

Noboru Masui  1 , Evgenios Agathokleous  2 , Tomoki Mochizuki  3 , Akira Tani  3 , Hideyuki Matsuura  4 , Takayoshi Koike  4   5
Affiliations
Editorial

Ozone disrupts the communication between plants and insects in urban and suburban areas: an updated insight on plant volatiles

Noboru Masui et al. J For Res (Harbin). 2021.

Abstract

Plant-insect interactions are basic components of biodiversity conservation. To attain the international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the interactions in urban and in suburban systems should be better understood to maintain the health of green infrastructure. The role of ground-level ozone (O3) as an environmental stress disrupting interaction webs is presented. Ozone mixing ratios in suburbs are usually higher than in the center of cities and may reduce photosynthetic productivity at a relatively higher degree. Consequently, carbon-based defense capacities of plants may be suppressed by elevated O3 more in the suburbs. However, contrary to this expectation, grazing damages by leaf beetles have been severe in some urban centers in comparison with the suburbs. To explain differences in grazing damages between urban areas and suburbs, the disruption of atmospheric communication signals by elevated O3 via changes in plant-regulated biogenic volatile organic compounds and long-chain fatty acids are considered. The ecological roles of plant volatiles and the effects of O3 from both a chemical and a biological perspective are presented. Ozone-disrupted plant volatiles should be considered to explain herbivory phenomena in urban and suburban systems.

Supplementary information: The online version of this article contains supplementary material available at (10.1007/s11676-020-01287-4) to authorized users.

Keywords: Biological interactions; Elevated O3; Insect grazing; Plant defense mechanisms; Pollination.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Relationship between defensive capacity of plants and environmental conditions; C is carbon and N is nitrogen (illustrated from Schoonhoven et al. 2005)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A new insight into the behavior of insects with plant volatiles under elevated O3. White arrows indicate traditional discussion for herbivory explained with foliage qualities such as defensive capacities. The processes indicated by white arrows mean an explanation with traditional discussion and blue arrows mean new processes with plant volatiles, incorporated to traditional discussion as shown in main text
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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