Environmental driver manipulation (Brassicaceae)

Knowledge graph centered on Environmental driver manipulation (Brassicaceae) with 27 nodes and 101 connections. Top connected: Lepidoptera, Delphinium barbeyi, Arabidopsis, Boechera stricta, Boechera.

Method synopsis

Manipulative treatments using rainout shelters to control soil moisture and insecticide applications to control herbivory levels, allowing quantification of driver effects on plant performance.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 1 paper using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Increasing aridity may threaten the maintenance of a plant defence polymorphism (2025), Ecology Letters. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Install rainout shelters
   Installed rainout shelters to intercept precipitation and manipulate soil moisture. Shelters covered approximately 50% of the surface area of each garden block and included below-ground barriers to reduce lateral movement of soil moisture.
   Quantities: Shelters covering ~50% of surface area per treatment blockDuration: Installed seasonally during growing seasonsConditions: Deployed during growing seasons to manipulate soil moisture
   Equipment: rainout shelters, below-ground barriers
2. Apply herbivory treatments
   Sprayed plants weekly throughout growing seasons with either bacterial endotoxin insecticide (Thuricide BT Caterpillar Control, Southern Ag. Rubonia, FL) for reduced herbivory treatment according to manufacturer's instructions, targeting plants with plastic cone to minimise drift, or sprayed equal volume of water onto control plants using general mechanism of action and spray pattern.
   Quantities: Weekly applications to individual plantsDuration: Weekly throughout growing seasonsConditions: Applied during growing seasons in 2017-2019
   Equipment: Thuricide BT Caterpillar Control insecticide, plastic cones, spray equipment
3. Monitor soil moisture
   Monitored block-level soil temperature and light availability using linear models with census year, rainfall treatment and their interaction as fixed effects. Measured volumetric water content (VWC) in each block repeatedly using 12-cm handheld soil moisture probe, supplemented by adding 5.7L of water weekly to control blocks in 2018.

Typical Equipment

• rainout shelters
• below-ground barriers
• Thuricide BT Caterpillar Control insecticide
• plastic cones
• spray equipment
• Hydrosense handheld soil moisture probe

Output Measurements

• soil moisture levels
• herbivory damage levels

Papers Using This Protocol (1)

Species Studied With This Protocol