2021/06/09 by Layer, Sarah, Alcantara, Ruth, Addison, Jerry
#Arctostaphylos glandulosa #glandular trichome #indirect defense #plant defense #sticky plant
paper · doi:10.21973/n3w96r
Plant systems commonly use interactions known as indirect defenses to protect themselves against herbivory. One such defense is two-staged, beginning with plants utilizing sticky hairs known as glandular trichomes as an indirect defense to attract and trap carrion and provision predators. However, no known studies have specifically tested the efficacy of this defense across a stickiness gradient. We tested if increasing levels of stickiness on glandular manzanitas (Arctostaphylos glandulosa) increase the effectiveness of their herbivory defense. As well as if more carrion present on the glandular manzanita resulted in more predator abundances. The differing degrees of stickiness across A. glandulosa had no effect on arthropod entrapment amounts. Increased carrion abundances across manzanita bushes resulted in simultaneous increases of predators (Family: Thomisidae and Coccinellidae). However, stickiness did not play a role within this relationship. The complexity of sticky plant interaction may be more than meets the eye as various factors might have more of an effect on the efficiency of these plants’ defenses such as predators themselves.