Genetic and environmental factors behind foliar chemistry of the mature mountain birch.

Previous studies of mountain birch (Betula pubescens spp. czerepanovii) repeatedly have found differences between individual trees in herbivory-related traits, but rarely have yielded estimates of the additive genetic variation of these traits or of their relationship to habitat. We used thirty-year-old birch half-sibs in a northern common garden to estimate the effect of genetics and local microhabitat on resistance-related traits.

Immunological memory of mountain birches: effects of phenolics on performance of the autumnal moth depend on herbivory history of trees.

Plants have been suggested to have an immunological memory comparable to animals. The evidence for this, however, is scarce. In our study with the mountain birch -- Epirrita autumnata system, we demonstrated that birches exposed as long as 5 yr to feeding of E.

Foliar phenolics are differently associated with Epirrita autumnata growth and immunocompetence.

The quality of available food may affect insect herbivores directly (via growth and survivorship) and/or indirectly (by modifying insect vulnerability to parasitoids and pathogens). We examined the relationship between different phenolic compounds, belonging to various phenolic groups, in Betula pubescens spp. czerepanovii (mountain birch) foliage and the larval performance of the geometrid Epirrita autumnata (autumnal moth).

Temperature as a modifier of plant-herbivore interaction.

Temperature directly affects the growth, survival, and development rates of poikilothermic insect herbivores; it may also have an important indirect impact, via the activities of plant defensive enzymes. The effects of wounding birch leaves and temperature on the growth and development rates of a Lepidopteran moth, Epirrita autumnata, were studied. We also examined the activities of a mountain birch (Betula pubescesns spp.