Ngan Bao Huynh
Senior Engineer
Authors
Ngan Bao Huynh Paal Krokene Jorunn Elisabeth Olsen Taina Pennanen Adriana Puentes Vaida Sirgedaitė-Šėžienė Vytautas Čėsna Ieva Čėsnienė Melissa MagerøyAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
• For more than 20 years, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) has been used to study inducible defenses in conifers and to increase tree resistance to pests and pathogens. Despite the numerous studies on the subject, no attempts have been made to summarize or quantify how MeJA affects resistance and growth in conifers. Here we present a quantitative meta-analysis of the effects of MeJA treatment on the conifer genera Pinus and Picea, two of the most economically and ecologically important tree genera in boreal, temperate, and alpine forests. • A literature search yielded 120 relevant papers. We summarized the key experimental methods used in these papers and performed a meta-analysis of how MeJA affects tree growth and resistance to pests and pathogens. • The results show that MeJA negatively affects tree growth, with an overall effect size of −0.63. The overall effect size of MeJA for tree resistance was −0.76, indicating that MeJA treatment significantly reduces tree damage caused by biotic stressors. • Although our meta-analysis shows that MeJA is effective in enhancing conifer defenses, there are still gaps in our understanding of the durability and ecological consequences of MeJA treatment. We provide suggestions for how future research should be conducted to address these gaps.