Does plant apparency matter? Thirty years of data provide limited support but reveal clear patterns of the effects of plant chemistry on herbivores

Smilanich, Angela M.; Fincher, R. Malia; Dyer, Lee A.

doi:10.1111/nph.13875

Cited by 92 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…Our finding that adult Q. robur trees exhibited higher leaf herbivory than saplings is in line with previous work showing that larger and more conspicuous plants (adults in this case) are easier to find and thus suffer more damage by herbivores 23, 24 . In addition, our findings indicated that saplings were more defended than adult trees, which also agrees with theoretical expectations of increased investment during the sapling and juvenile stages, and a subsequent reduction of defences in adults 20 (but see Barton & Koricheva 19 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Interactive effects of plant neighbourhood and ontogeny on insect herbivory and plant defensive traits

Moreira

Glauser

Abdala‐Roberts

2017

Sci Rep

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Plant ontogenetic stage and features of surrounding plant neighbourhoods can strongly influence herbivory and defences on focal plants. However, the effects of both factors have been assessed independently in previous studies. Here we tested for the independent and interactive effects of neighbourhood type (low vs. high frequency of our focal plant species in heterospecific stands) and ontogeny on leaf herbivory, physical traits and chemical defences of the English oak Quercus robur. We further tested whether plant traits were associated with neighbourhood and ontogenetic effects on herbivory. We found that leaf herbivory decreased in stands with a low frequency of Q. robur, and that saplings received less herbivory than adult trees. Interestingly, we also found interactive effects of these factors where a difference in damage between saplings and adult trees was only observed in stands with a high frequency of Q. robur. We also found strong ontogenetic differences in leaf traits where saplings had more defended leaves than adult trees, and this difference in turn explained ontogenetic differences in herbivory. Plant trait variation did not explain the neighbourhood effect on herbivory. This study builds towards a better understanding of the concurrent effects of plant individual- and community-level characteristics influencing plant-herbivore interactions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Interactive effects of plant neighbourhood and ontogeny on insect herbivory and plant defensive traits

Moreira

Glauser

Abdala‐Roberts

2017

Sci Rep

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“…The reasons that these models do not hold up are often attributed to vast variation in the extrinsic environmental factors that exert selective pressures on plant populations, broad variation in life‐history among plant species, differences between interspecific and intraspecific variation, and variation in herbivore abundances across environmental gradients (Stamp ; Hahn and Maron ; Smilanich et al. ; Hahn et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Smilanich et al. ). Despite the development of multiple ecological and evolutionary hypotheses that postulate a relationship between growth, reproduction, and resistance to herbivores (Feeny ; Coley et al.…”

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confidence: 97%

Mechanisms of a locally adaptive shift in allocation among growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance in Mimulus guttatus *

et al. 2019

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Environmental gradients can drive adaptive evolutionary shifts in plant resource allocation among growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance. However, few studies have attempted to connect these adaptations to underlying physiological and genetic mechanisms. Here, we evaluate potential mechanisms responsible for a coordinated locally adaptive shift between growth, reproduction, and herbivore defense in the yellow monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus. Through manipulative laboratory experiments, we found that gibberellin (GA) growth hormones may play a role in the developmental divergence between perennial and annual ecotypes of M. guttatus. Further, we detected an interaction between a locally adaptive chromosomal inversion, DIV1, and GA addition. This finding is consistent with the inversion contributing to the evolutionary divergence between inland annual and coastal perennial ecotypes by reducing GA biosynthesis/activity in perennials. Finally, we found evidence that the DIV1 inversion is partially responsible for a coordinated shift in the divergence of growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance traits between coastal perennial and inland annual M. guttatus. The inversion has already been established to have a substantial impact on the life‐history shift between long‐term growth and rapid reproduction. Here, we demonstrate that the DIV1 inversion also has sizable impacts on both the total abundance and composition of phytochemical compounds involved in herbivore resistance.

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“…; Agrawal & Weber ; Smilanich et al . ). However, most studies have assessed this relationship at a single ontogenetic stage, disregarding the possibility that the effectiveness of these as anti‐herbivore defences can be relevant at other ontogenetic stages, while at the studied stage can have other functions.…”

Section: Drivers Of Ontogenetic Changes In Plant Defencementioning

confidence: 97%

Future directions in the ontogeny of plant defence: understanding the evolutionary causes and consequences

2017

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Plant defence often varies by orders of magnitude as plants develop from the seedling to juvenile to mature and senescent stages. Ontogenetic trajectories can involve switches among defence traits, leading to complex shifting phenotypes across plant lifetimes. While considerable research has characterised ontogenetic trajectories for now hundreds of plant species, we still lack a clear understanding of the molecular, ecological and evolutionary factors driving these patterns. In this study, we identify several non-mutually exclusive factors that may have led to the evolution of ontogenetic trajectories in plant defence, including developmental constraints, resource allocation costs, multi-functionality of defence traits, and herbivore selection pressure. Evidence from recent physiological studies is highlighted to shed light on the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation and activation of these developmental changes. Overall, our goal is to promote new research avenues that would provide evidence for the factors that have promoted the evolution of this complex lifetime phenotype. Future research focusing on the questions and approaches identified here will advance the field and shed light on why defence traits shift so dramatically across plant ontogeny, a widespread but poorly understood ecological pattern.

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Does plant apparency matter? Thirty years of data provide limited support but reveal clear patterns of the effects of plant chemistry on herbivores

Cited by 92 publications

References 118 publications

Interactive effects of plant neighbourhood and ontogeny on insect herbivory and plant defensive traits

Interactive effects of plant neighbourhood and ontogeny on insect herbivory and plant defensive traits

Mechanisms of a locally adaptive shift in allocation among growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance in Mimulus guttatus *

Future directions in the ontogeny of plant defence: understanding the evolutionary causes and consequences

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