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Ozone Degrades Common Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles: Does This Affect Herbivore Prey Location by Predators and Parasitoids?

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Abstract

Inducible terpenes and lipoxygenase pathway products, e.g., green-leaf volatiles (GLVs), are emitted by plants in response to herbivory. They are used by carnivorous arthropods to locate prey. These compounds are highly reactive with atmospheric pollutants. We hypothesized that elevated ozone (O3) may affect chemical communication between plants and natural enemies of herbivores by degrading signal compounds. In this study, we have used two tritrophic systems (Brassica oleracea–Plutella xylostella–Cotesia plutellae and Phaseolus lunatus–Tetranychus urticae–Phytoseiulus persimilis) to show that exposure of plants to moderately enhanced atmospheric O3 levels (60 and 120 nl l−1) results in complete degradation of most herbivore-induced terpenes and GLVs, which is congruent with our hypothesis. However, orientation behavior of natural enemies was not disrupted by O3 exposure in either tritrophic system. Other herbivore-induced volatiles, such as benzyl cyanide, a nitrile in cabbage, and methyl salicylate in lima bean, were not significantly reduced in reactions with O3. We suggest that more atmospherically stable herbivore-induced volatile compounds can provide important long-distance plant-carnivore signals and may be used by natural enemies of herbivores to orientate in O3-polluted environments.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Timo Oksanen for the assistance in the development of the setup used in the experiment. D.P., J.B., and J.K.H. are supported by ISONET, MRTN-CT-2003-504720, and J.K.H. and A-M.N. by the Academy of Finland (ESGEMO programme, decision no. 105209).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland

    Delia M. Pinto, James D. Blande, Riikka Nykänen, Anne-Marja Nerg & Jarmo K. Holopainen

  2. Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yunqi Road No.1, Hangzhou, 310008, China

    Wen-Xia Dong

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  1. Delia M. Pinto
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  2. James D. Blande
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Correspondence to Delia M. Pinto.

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Pinto, D.M., Blande, J.D., Nykänen, R. et al. Ozone Degrades Common Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles: Does This Affect Herbivore Prey Location by Predators and Parasitoids?. J Chem Ecol 33, 683–694 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-007-9255-8

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