Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38357594›Full record

ArticleEcology and evolution2024

Effects of leaf herbivory and autumn seasonality on plant secondary metabolites: A meta-analysis.

Lota Skovmand, Rose E O'Dea, Keri A Greig, Katherine R Amato, Andrew P Hendry

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Ecology and evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
4.1field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Plant tannin for grazing ruminant growth.Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

Lota SkovmandRedpath Museum & Department of Biology McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5209-2355
Rose E O'DeaSchool of Agriculture, Food, and Ecosystem Sciences University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria Australia.
Keri A GreigDepartment of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas USA.
Katherine R AmatoDepartment of Anthropology Northwestern University Evanston Illinois USA.
Andrew P HendryRedpath Museum & Department of Biology McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4807-6667
McGill University · CANorthwestern University · USThe University of Melbourne · AUThe University of Texas at Austin · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) are produced by plants to overcome environmental challenges, both biotic and abiotic. We were interested in characterizing how autumn seasonality in temperate and subtropical climates affects overall PSM production in comparison to herbivory. Herbivory is commonly measured between spring to summer when plants have high resource availability and prioritize growth and reproduction. However, autumn seasonality also challenges plants as they cope with limited resources and prepare survival for winter. This suggests a potential gap in our understanding of how herbivory affects PSM production in autumn compared to spring/summer. Using meta-analysis, we recorded overall production of 22 different PSM subgroups from 58 published papers to calculate effect sizes from herbivory studies (absence to presence) and temperate to subtropical seasonal studies (summer to autumn), while considering other variables (e.g., plant type, increase in time since herbivory, temperature, and precipitation). We also compared production of five phenolic PSM subgroups - hydroxybenzoic acids, flavan-3-ols, flavonols, hydrolysable tannins, and condensed tannins. We wanted to detect a shared response across all PSMs and found that herbivory increased overall PSM production in herbaceous plants. Herbivory was also found to have a positive effect on individual PSM subgroups, such as flavonol production, while autumn seasonality was found to have a positive effect on flavan-3-ol and condensed tannin production. We discuss how these responses might stem from plants producing some PSMs constitutively, whereas others are induced only after herbivory, and how plants produce metabolites with higher costs only during seasons when other resources for growth and reproduction are less available, while other phenolic PSM subgroups serve more than one function for plants and such functions can be season dependent. The outcome of our meta-analysis is that autumn seasonality changes some PSM production differently from herbivory, and we see value in further investigating seasonality-herbivory interactions with plant chemical defense.

Indexed as

autumn seasonalityflavonoidsherbivoryphenolicsplant chemical defenseplant secondary metabolites

Identifiers

PMID38357594
PMCPMC10864732
OpenAlexW4391817856

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.