Resilience of plant-insect interactions in an oak lineage through Quaternary climate change

Plant-insect interactions are vital for structuring terrestrial ecosystems. It is still unclear how climate change in geological time might have shaped plant-insect interactions leading to modern ecosystems. We investigated the effect of Quaternary climate change on plant-insect interactions by observing insect herbivory on leaves of an evergreen sclerophyllous oak lineage (Quercus section Heterobalanus, HET) from a late Pliocene flora and eight living forests in southwestern China. Among the modern HET populations investigated, the damage diversity tends to be higher in warmer and wetter climates. Even though the climate of the fossil flora was warmer and wetter than modern sample sites, the damage diversity is lower in the fossil flora than in modern HET populations. Eleven out of 18 damage types in modern HET populations are observed in the fossil flora. All damage types in the fossil flora, except for one distinctive gall type, are found in modern HET populations. These results indi...植物-昆虫相互作用（Plant-insect interactions）对于构建陆地生态系统至关重要。目前学界仍未明确地质时期的气候变化如何塑造了演变为现代生态系统的植物-昆虫相互作用。本研究以中国西南地区上新世晚期植物群及8处现存森林中的常绿硬叶栎类群——栎属青冈组（Quercus section Heterobalanus，缩写HET）的叶片为研究对象，通过观测叶片上的昆虫植食损伤，探究了第四纪气候变化对植物-昆虫相互作用的影响。在所调查的现代青冈组种群中，植食损伤多样性往往在温暖湿润的气候条件下更高。尽管该化石植物群的气候相较于现代采样点更为温暖湿润，但其植食损伤多样性却低于现代青冈组种群。现代青冈组种群的18种损伤类型中，有11种在该化石植物群中被发现。化石植物群中的所有损伤类型，除一种独特的虫瘿类型外，均在现代青冈组种群中被发现。上述研究结果表明