Latitudinal patterns of herbivore pressure in a temperate herb support the biotic interactions hypothesis

Baskett, Carina A.; Schemske, Douglas W.

doi:10.1111/ele.12925

Cited by 53 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…It is not clear, however, to what extent the turnover of network structure is driven by a systematic change in species composition or of pairwise interactions (Poisot et al 2012(Poisot et al , 2015. We know that interactions vary with the environment in other systems, for instance, herbivory (Shurin et al 2012, Baskett et al 2018) and predation (McKinnon et al 2010, Legagneux et al 2014 are often found to increase with temperature, resulting in spatial variation of trophic cascades (Gray et al 2016). Further, the occurrence of interactions among host and parasite is highly stochastic even when both are present, and not predictable by the variables considered by us.…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Elton and Grinnell together: a quantitative framework to represent the biogeography of ecological interaction networks

et al. 2018

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Biogeography has traditionally focused on the spatial distribution and abundance of species. Both are driven by the way species interact with one another, but only recently community ecologists realized the need to document their spatial and temporal variation. Here, we call for an integrated approach, adopting the view that community structure is best represented as a network of ecological interactions, and show how it translates to biogeography questions. We propose that the ecological niche should encompass the effect of the environment on species distribution (the Grinnellian dimension of the niche) and on the ecological interactions among them (the Eltonian dimension). Starting from this concept, we develop a quantitative theory to explain turnover of interactions in space and time -i.e. a novel approach to interaction distribution modeling. We apply this framework to host-parasite interactions across Europe and find that two aspects of the environment (temperature and precipitation) exert a strong imprint on species co-occurrence, but not on species interactions. Even where species co-occur, interaction proves to be stochastic rather than deterministic, adding to variation in realized network structure. We also find that a large majority of host-parasite pairs are never found together, thus precluding any inferences regarding their probability to interact. This first attempt to explain variation of network structure at large spatial scales opens new perspectives at the interface of species distribution modeling and community ecology.

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Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Elton and Grinnell together: a quantitative framework to represent the biogeography of ecological interaction networks

et al. 2018

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“…, Anstett et al. , Baskett and Schemske ). For example, a meta‐analysis found that the latitudinal diversity gradient is stronger in studies that cover a wider latitudinal range, although latitudinal midpoint did not affect the strength of the gradient (Kinlock et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This approach is commonly used to study plant–herbivore interactions (Pennings and Silliman , Salgado and Pennings , Anstett et al. , , Baskett and Schemske ), but has found mixed support for the biotic interactions hypothesis (Moles et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple metrics of latitudinal patterns in insect pollination and herbivory for a tropical‐temperate congener pair

Baskett

Schroeder

Weber

et al. 2020

Ecological Monographs

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The biotic interactions hypothesis posits that biotic interactions are more important drivers of adaptation closer to the equator, evidenced by "stronger" contemporary interactions (e.g., greater interaction rates) and/or patterns of trait evolution consistent with a history of stronger interactions. Support for the hypothesis is mixed, but few studies span tropical and temperate regions while experimentally controlling for evolutionary history. Here, we integrate field observations and common garden experiments to quantify the relative importance of pollination and herbivory in a pair of tropical-temperate congeneric perennial herbs. Phytolacca rivinoides and P. americana are pioneer species native to the Neotropics and the eastern United States, respectively. We compared plant-pollinator and plant-herbivore interactions between three tropical populations of P. rivinoides from Costa Rica and three temperate populations of P. americana from its northern range edge in Michigan and Ohio. For some metrics of interaction importance, we also included three subtropical populations of P. americana from its southern range edge in Florida. This approach confounds species and region but allows us, uniquely, to measure complementary proxies of interaction importance across a tropicaltemperate range in one system. To test the prediction that lower-latitude plants are more reliant on insect pollinators, we quantified floral display and reward, insect visitation rates, and self-pollination ability (autogamy). To test the prediction that lower-latitude plants experience more herbivore pressure, we quantified herbivory rates, herbivore abundance, and leaf palatability. We found evidence supporting the biotic interactions hypothesis for most comparisons between P. rivinoides and north-temperate P. americana (floral display, insect visitation, autogamy, herbivory, herbivore abundance, and young-leaf palatability). Results for subtropical P. americana populations, however, were typically not intermediate between P. rivinoides and north-temperate P. americana, as would be predicted by a linear latitudinal gradient in interaction importance. Subtropical young-leaf palatability was intermediate, but subtropical mature leaves were the least palatable, and pollination-related traits did not differ between temperate and subtropical regions. These nonlinear patterns of interaction importance suggest future work to link interaction importance to climatic or biotic thresholds. In sum, we found that the biotic interactions hypothesis was more consistently supported at the larger spatial scale of our study.

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“…Mittelbach et al, ; but see: Schluter & Pennell, ) could obfuscate patterns in our data if sister clades consistently differ in their regional associations. Previous work by Lewinsohn () found that latex is more common and more abundant in tropical plant species and herbivory pressures have been shown to be higher in the tropics (Baskett & Schemske, ; Coley & Barone, ). A cursory post‐hoc examination of the clades in this analysis, in which we evaluated whether sister clade status is confounded with tropicality, did not reveal a detectible signal of strong latitudinal differences across clades (Figure ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do latex and resin canals spur plant diversification? Re‐examining a classic example of escape and radiate coevolution

et al. 2019

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The association between increased lineage diversification rates and the evolution of latex and resin canals is widely cited as a paradigmatic example of Ehrlich and Raven’s ‘escape‐and‐radiate’ hypothesis of co‐evolution. However, it has been over a quarter‐century since the original study, and updates to phylogenetic comparative methods, plant molecular systematics, and phenotypic data warrant a reassessment of this classic finding. We gathered data on latex and resin canals across 345 families and 986 genera of vascular plants and conducted a multi‐scale test of the association between these traits and lineage diversification rates. At a broad scale (across clades), we used sister‐clade comparisons to test whether 28 canal‐bearing clades had higher net diversification rates than their canal‐lacking sister clades. At a finer scale (within clades), we used ancestral state reconstructions and phylogenetic models of lineage diversification rates to examine the relationship between trait evolution and the timing of diversification rate shifts in two better‐characterized clades – Araceae and Papaveraceae. At both scales of our analyses we found poor support for the predicted relationship between diversification and the evolution of latex and resin canals. Follow‐up analyses clarified that the qualitative change between our results and those of the Farrell et al.’s classic study is not the result of different phylogenetic comparative methods. Instead, the differences are attributable to updates to plant systematic hypotheses and new data on laticifers and resin canal presence/absence. Synthesis. Our updated study reveals that there is no longer strong evidence for latex or resin canals as general, consistently replicable drivers of species diversity across plants. However, we cannot rule out a relationship in all groups. We therefore argue that theoretical and empirical work aimed at understanding ecological factors that condition ‘escape‐and‐radiate’ dynamics will allow for more nuanced tests of the hypothesis in the future.

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Latitudinal patterns of herbivore pressure in a temperate herb support the biotic interactions hypothesis

Cited by 53 publications

References 65 publications

Bringing Elton and Grinnell together: a quantitative framework to represent the biogeography of ecological interaction networks

Bringing Elton and Grinnell together: a quantitative framework to represent the biogeography of ecological interaction networks

Multiple metrics of latitudinal patterns in insect pollination and herbivory for a tropical‐temperate congener pair

Do latex and resin canals spur plant diversification? Re‐examining a classic example of escape and radiate coevolution

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