from the same-thing-happens-to-my-wife-after-too-much-nibbling dept.
In spring, the young, delicate shoots in the forest light up, bright and May green. The buds and shoots are the future of the forests as they allow young trees to grow. The problem for the trees is: Roe deer like to eat them, and especially their buds. With a bit of luck, the young, gnawed saplings will only take a few more years to grow than their non-bitten conspecifics. In the worst case, they will become stunted trees, or they will have to give up their fight for survival after a number of years. In this respect, roe deer can cause a great deal of damage and hinder the regeneration of many deciduous tree species.
In order to protect themselves against roe deer browsing, trees purposely put up a fight. By studying young beeches (Fagus sylvatica) and maples (Acer pseudoplatanus), biologists from the Leipzig University and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) have now found out that trees are able to recognise precisely whether a branch or bud has been purposefully nibbled off by a roe deer -- or just randomly torn off by a storm or other mechanical disturbance. The saliva of the animals gives them the signal. If a deer feeds on a tree and leaves its saliva behind, the tree will increase its production of salicylic acid. This hormone, in turn, signals to the plant to increase the production of specific tannins. It is known for some of these substances that they influence the feeding behaviour of roe deer, with the result that the deer lose their appetite for the shoots and buds. In addition, the saplings increase their concentrations of other plant hormones, growth hormones in particular. These hormones enhance the growth of the remaining buds to compensate for the lost ones.
After the deer, and only deer, nibble buds off beech saplings, the trees turn bitter to discourage further grazing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:12AM
Eco systems are really complicated.
I live in the only major land mass with no native mammals*, and this must be why the introduced browsers do so much damage to our native forests, they did not evolve together, so the trees have no defences.
Interestingly it was birds that evolved to fill the browser niche.
**
*New Zealand [wikipedia.org]
**Moas [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday September 14 2016, @08:49AM
You have wonderful birds in your country, fine sir or madam!!! The kakapo is a favorite of mine!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 14 2016, @09:37PM
Well thank you. (Not that I can claim any credit).
If any of you overseas Soylentils happen to be in this neck of the woods a trip to Tiritirimatangi Island [wikipedia.org] would be a good day out. No Kakapo, but there are Takahe, which are also cool and unique.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday September 14 2016, @04:02AM
Not drunk enough to bring up the obvious corollary on human females that would be more than welcome on Fark. Too drunk to resist posting this.
Once again, lets play "Interesting/Insightful/Funny/Disagree/Offtopic/Troll" roulette with the mod system here.
Me? I'm shooting for funny, but then again I'm an optimist.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday September 14 2016, @04:11AM
I'm drunk enough to tell you that human females have indeed developed a defense to males who drool on them. That hand print on my cheek lasted a good 6 hours. ;-)
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gravis on Wednesday September 14 2016, @09:58AM
I realize it's the article that wrote that the trees "recognize" the deer by their saliva but honestly that is the wrong word because recognition requires the ability to think which trees do not have. It would be more accurate to write that the trees react (chemically) to deer roe saliva, triggers the release of a hormone, altering the flavor of the tree which roe deer do not favor, resulting in lower amounts of grazing on that tree by roe deer in the future.
I know it's pedantry and requires a lot of carefully chosen phrases but plants and evolution have no will at all and writing that they do is simply anthropomorphic projection.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday September 14 2016, @01:18PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday September 14 2016, @06:17PM
If a living being identifies the saliva of a predator, I'm pretty sure that "recognizes" is a proper term.
Sure, it's just chemicals reacting, but then again so are my tastebuds.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:06PM
Oh yeah? Well if these trees are so damned smart (recognizing the dear saliva, really?) why don't they start off bitter to begin with? Stupid trees, probably a self-conscious thing.