Investigation of phenolic defense properties in Acer rubrum

Abstract

General EcologyIt is important that plants have the ability to increase levels of chemical defenses to deter herbivores. According to the carbon nutrient balance hypothesis a plant can favor allocation of energy toward growth or toward carbon based defenses depending on the metabolic needs of the plant. Because of this, levels of chemical defenses may fluctuate during a plants lifetime. Phenolic levels in plants are found at a constitutive level until after an attack, at which point the plant can induce the production of phenolics to increase the concentration. Chemical activity within a plant relies largely on the rate of photosynthesis, so accordingly we ask whether a resource such as sunlight could have an effect on the production rate of phenolics. Our experiment focuses on investigating the pre- and post-attack levels of phenolic compounds on Acer rubrum leaves receiving different levels of sunlight. We found that leaves from the north and south side both experienced induction, but that the amount of sunlight available to a leaf did not significantly affect the constitutive or induced phenolic concentrations.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61465/1/Koch_Maiuri_Motalleb_Semrau_2008.pd