Increased frequency and severity of drought, as a result of climate change, is expected to drive critical changes in plant–insect interactions that may elevate rates of tree mortality. The mechanisms that link water stress in plants to insect performance are not well understood. Here, we build on previous reviews and develop a framework that incorporates the severity and longevity of drought and captures the plant physiological adjustments that follow moderate and severe drought. Using this framework, we investigate in greater depth how insect performance responds to increasing drought severity for: (i) different feeding guilds; (ii) flush feeders and senescence feeders; (iii) specialist and generalist insect herbivores; and (iv) temperate versus tropical forest communities. We outline how intermittent and moderate drought can result in increases of carbon‐based and nitrogen‐based chemical defences, whereas long and severe drought events can result in decreases in plant secondary defence compounds. We predict that different herbivore feeding guilds will show different but predictable responses to drought events, with most feeding guilds being negatively affected by water stress, with the exception of wood borers and bark beetles during severe drought and sap‐sucking insects and leaf miners during moderate and intermittent drought. Time of feeding and host specificity are important considerations. Some insects, regardless of feeding guild, prefer to feed on younger tissues from leaf flush, whereas others are adapted to feed on senescing tissues of severely stressed trees. We argue that moderate water stress could benefit specialist insect herbivores, while generalists might prefer severe drought conditions. Current evidence suggests that insect outbreaks are shorter and more spatially restricted in tropical than in temperate forests. We suggest that future research on the impact of drought on insect communities should include (i) assessing how drought‐induced changes in various plant traits, such as secondary compound concentrations and leaf water potential, affect herbivores; (ii) food web implications for other insects and those that feed on them; and (iii) interactions between the effects on insects of increasing drought and other forms of environmental change including rising temperatures and CO2 levels. There is a need for larger, temperate and tropical forest‐scale drought experiments to look at herbivorous insect responses and their role in tree death.

中文翻译：

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食草昆虫如何应对树木的干旱压力？

由于气候变化，干旱的频率和严重程度增加，预计将推动植物-昆虫相互作用的重大变化，从而可能提高树木死亡率。将植物中的水分胁迫与昆虫表现联系起来的机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们在之前的评论的基础上开发了一个框架，该框架结合了干旱的严重程度和持续时间，并捕捉了中度和重度干旱之后的植物生理调整。使用这个框架，我们更深入地研究昆虫的表现如何对干旱严重程度的增加做出反应：（i）不同的饲养行会；(ii) 冲洗饲养者和衰老饲养者；(iii) 专科和通才昆虫食草动物；(iv) 温带与热带森林群落。我们概述了间歇性和中度干旱如何导致碳基和氮基化学防御的增加，而长期和严重的干旱事件会导致植物二级防御化合物的减少。我们预测，不同的食草动物饲养行会对干旱事件表现出不同但可预测的反应，大多数饲养行会受到水分胁迫的负面影响，除了严重干旱期间的蛀木虫和树皮甲虫以及中等干旱期间的吸液昆虫和潜叶虫。和间歇性干旱。喂养时间和宿主特异性是重要的考虑因素。一些昆虫，无论是哪个饲养公会，都喜欢以叶片冲洗的年轻组织为食，而其他昆虫则适合以严重压力树木的衰老组织为食。我们认为适度的缺水压力可以使专业昆虫食草动物受益，而通才可能更喜欢严重的干旱条件。目前的证据表明，与温带森林相比，热带地区的昆虫爆发时间更短，空间限制也更大。我们建议未来关于干旱对昆虫群落影响的研究应包括 (i) 评估干旱引起的各种植物性状变化，如次生化合物浓度和叶水势，如何影响食草动物；(ii) 食物网对其他昆虫和以它们为食的昆虫的影响；(iii) 干旱加剧对昆虫的影响与其他形式的环境变化（包括气温升高和二氧化碳水平）之间的相互作用。需要更大的，