Widespread and prolonged defoliation by the European winter moth, Operophtera brumata L., has occurred in forests of eastern Massachusetts for more than a decade and populations of winter moth continue to invade new areas of New England. This study characterized the forests of eastern Massachusetts invaded by winter moth and related the duration of winter moth defoliation estimated using dendro...

The concentration of the carbon-13 isotope (leaf δ13C) in leaves is negatively correlated with the mean annual precipitation (MAP) at large geographical scales. In this paper, we explain the spatial pattern of leaf δ13C variation for deciduous oriental oak (Quercus variabilis Bl.) across temperate and subtropical biomes and its sensitivity to climate factors such as MAP. There was a 6‰ variatio...

Leaves are the largest component of forest litter. Their decomposition rate depends mainly on plant species, leaf chemical composition, microorganism biodiversity, and habitat conditions. It is known that herbivory by insects can modify composition leaves, such as through induction. The aim this study was to determine whether related susceptibility species insect feeding how damage affects rate...

Abstract Background The relationship between physiological age of parental trees and lifespan clonal offspring is unclear. White oak ( Quercus fabri Hance) has a high sprouting capability after harvest, with the regenerated sprouts being typical individuals. To determine whether undergo rapid senescence compared parent, levels 5-, 10-, 20- 40-year-old stump in natural forest were evaluated. ant...

The effect of pre-sowing priming with N-hexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C6-HSL) solution (300 mg/L) on acorn germination and morpho-phenological characteristics Quercus robur Q. rubra was studied under laboratory conditions. After priming, 93.4% acorns germinated that exceeded the control by 32.2%, while number sprouted increased within error limits 5% more than amounted to 90%. According morpho...

Loranthus europaeus is one of the major plant parasites threatening fragile ecosystems oak forests in western Iran. The mistletoe a hemi-parasite which grows on forest species, especially oaks. Carbon isotope composition (?13C) has been central to understand behaviour mistletoes field. This study investigated C and N compositions leaves L. its host oaks (Quercus libani, Q. infectoria brantii) g...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Both nutrient availability and defoliation affect the carbon-nutrient balance in plants, which in turn influences biomass allocation (e.g. shoot-to-root ratio) and leaf chemical composition (concentration of nitrogen and secondary compounds). In this study it is questioned whether defoliation alters biomass allocation and chemical defence in a similar fashion to the response...

The oak red scale insect, Kuwania quercus (Kuwana), was described from specimens collected from the bark of oak trees (Quercus species) in Japan. More recently, the species has been identified from California and China, but Californian specimens differ morphologically from Japanese material and are considered here to be a new species based on both morphological and molecular data. In this paper...

I tested the hypothesis that early season herbivory by leaf-chewing insects affects distribution, densities, and survivorship of late-feeding, leaf-mining insects; early chewing may physically and chemically alter quality of leaves for later leaf miners on the shared host plant, Quercus emoryi. Proportions of intact leaves and leaves damaged by native leaf chewers on six control and six experim...