Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value

Besides supporting cattle feeding, grasslands are home to a diversity of plants and insects that interact with each other by emitting volatile compounds. The aim of this work was to develop a method to determine permanent grassland odorscape and relate it to flower-visiting insects. Two grasslands w...

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Main Authors:	Cornu, Agnès, Farruggia, Anne, Leppik, Ene, Pinier, Centina, Fournier, Florence, Genoud, David, Frérot, Brigitte
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4633103/

id	pubmed-4633103
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-46331032015-11-13 Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value Cornu, Agnès Farruggia, Anne Leppik, Ene Pinier, Centina Fournier, Florence Genoud, David Frérot, Brigitte Research Article Besides supporting cattle feeding, grasslands are home to a diversity of plants and insects that interact with each other by emitting volatile compounds. The aim of this work was to develop a method to determine permanent grassland odorscape and relate it to flower-visiting insects. Two grasslands were chosen for their contrasting levels of botanical diversity, resulting from differing grazing managements. Measurements were made over two periods of three consecutive days at the beginning of grazing, and just after the cows had left the plots. Volatile compounds were trapped using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers exposed eight hours a day in three exclosures per plot, and then analyzed by gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Insects were trapped using pan traps and a net, sorted and counted. The open air SPME method yielded volatile compound profiles that were richer than maize field profiles, comprising the common green leaf volatiles (GLV) and more specific ones. Differences between the odorscapes of the two grasslands were found, but they were not as marked as expected from their botanical composition. By contrast, there were sharp differences between the two periods, resulting from the combined effects of changes in weather conditions, plant phenological stage and grazing progress. Several correlations between insect counts and volatile compounds were found. Although their correlation coefficients were low, some of them were confirmed when tested by Spearman rank correlation, and could be logically explained. This method of grassland odorscape deserves to be developed because it can provide information on many aspects of grassland function and on the stresses that grassland plants undergo. Public Library of Science 2015-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4633103/ /pubmed/26536369 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140600 Text en © 2015 Cornu et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Cornu, Agnès Farruggia, Anne Leppik, Ene Pinier, Centina Fournier, Florence Genoud, David Frérot, Brigitte
spellingShingle	Cornu, Agnès Farruggia, Anne Leppik, Ene Pinier, Centina Fournier, Florence Genoud, David Frérot, Brigitte Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value
author_facet	Cornu, Agnès Farruggia, Anne Leppik, Ene Pinier, Centina Fournier, Florence Genoud, David Frérot, Brigitte
author_sort	Cornu, Agnès
title	Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value
title_short	Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value
title_full	Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value
title_fullStr	Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value
title_full_unstemmed	Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value
title_sort	trapping the pasture odorscape using open-air solid-phase micro extraction, a tool to assess grassland value
description	Besides supporting cattle feeding, grasslands are home to a diversity of plants and insects that interact with each other by emitting volatile compounds. The aim of this work was to develop a method to determine permanent grassland odorscape and relate it to flower-visiting insects. Two grasslands were chosen for their contrasting levels of botanical diversity, resulting from differing grazing managements. Measurements were made over two periods of three consecutive days at the beginning of grazing, and just after the cows had left the plots. Volatile compounds were trapped using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers exposed eight hours a day in three exclosures per plot, and then analyzed by gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Insects were trapped using pan traps and a net, sorted and counted. The open air SPME method yielded volatile compound profiles that were richer than maize field profiles, comprising the common green leaf volatiles (GLV) and more specific ones. Differences between the odorscapes of the two grasslands were found, but they were not as marked as expected from their botanical composition. By contrast, there were sharp differences between the two periods, resulting from the combined effects of changes in weather conditions, plant phenological stage and grazing progress. Several correlations between insect counts and volatile compounds were found. Although their correlation coefficients were low, some of them were confirmed when tested by Spearman rank correlation, and could be logically explained. This method of grassland odorscape deserves to be developed because it can provide information on many aspects of grassland function and on the stresses that grassland plants undergo.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4633103/
_version_	1613497419111071744

Trapping the Pasture Odorscape Using Open-Air Solid-Phase Micro Extraction, a Tool to Assess Grassland Value

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