Pea Plants Show Risk Sensitivity

Dener, Efrat; Kacelnik, Alex; Shemesh, Hagai

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.008

Cited by 65 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Very few studies have assessed how the response of plants to nutrient addition depends on the temporal pattern of nutrient supply (Dener, Kacelnik, & Shemesh, ; Liu & van Kleunen, ; Parepa et al, ). We found that the biomass of the alien target plants and the total biomass per pot (also including the native competitors) were lower when the nutrient supply gradually increased than when the nutrient supply was kept constant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increases and fluctuations in nutrient availability do not promote dominance of alien plants in synthetic communities of common natives

2018

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It is frequently thought that global environmental changes, and especially the concomitant changes in environmental variability, could further increase the success of invasive species in native resident communities. However, very few studies explicitly tested this, and it remains unknown whether invasive and noninvasive alien species respond differently to resource fluctuations in resident communities. We grew 10 invasive and 10 noninvasive species as target species in pot‐mesocosms with four different synthetic native resident communities under six nutrient treatments differing in overall nutrient availability and temporal fluctuations in nutrient supply (constant low, constant high, gradual increasing, gradual decreasing, single large pulse, multiple smaller pulses). With the exception of plants in the constant low treatment, the plants were supplied the same total amount of nutrients during the experiment. We tested whether high‐nutrient availability and fluctuations in nutrient supply increased performance of both invasive and noninvasive alien plants within native resident communities, and whether invasive ones benefited more than noninvasive ones. We found that the increase in biomass in response to nutrient addition was stronger for invasive than for noninvasive alien species. However, as the native competitors benefited even more from nutrient addition, the relative biomass of the alien target‐plant species, particularly the noninvasive ones, decreased. When the nutrient supply gradually increased, biomass of alien targets as well as native competitors decreased compared to the plants in the constant nutrient‐supply treatment. Surprisingly, when nutrients were supplied as a single large pulse, the absolute and relative biomass of the alien target plants decreased. The reduction in relative biomass was even stronger for invasive than for noninvasive alien species, and a similar pattern was found when nutrients were supplied as multiple smaller pulses. Our results confirm previous findings that invasive alien species benefit more from nutrient addition than noninvasive alien species. However, in contrast to previous findings, our results suggest that nutrient fluctuations can suppress biomass of alien plants relative to that of natives, at least when the natives are themselves very successful, common species. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13199/suppinfo is available for this article.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increases and fluctuations in nutrient availability do not promote dominance of alien plants in synthetic communities of common natives

2018

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“…Future work incorporating relations between plant physiology and defense expression as well as evaluation of risk sensitivity (Dener et al. ) might reveal how plant defense is shaped by complex decision rules. Past and present events may affect prediction and management of future allocation in plants (Novoplansky ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precipitation affects plant communication and defense

Pezzola

Mancuso

Karban

2017

Ecology

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Anti-herbivore defense shows high levels of both inter- and intraspecific variability. Defending against herbivores may be costly to the plant when it requires a tradeoff in allocation between defense and other missed opportunities, such as reproduction. Indeed, the plastic expression of defensive traits allows the plant to invest resources in defense only when the risk of being damaged actually increases, avoiding wasted resources. Plants may assess risk by responding to volatile cues emitted by neighbors that are under attack. Most plastic responses likely depend on environmental conditions. In this experiment, we investigated the effect of water availability on resistance induced by volatile cues in sagebrush. We found that plants receiving additional water over summer and/or volatile cues from neighbor donor plants showed reduced herbivore damage compared to control plants. Interestingly, we found no evidence of interactions between additional water and volatile cues. We performed an inferential analysis comparing historical records of the levels of herbivore damage during different years that had different temperature and precipitation accumulations. Results confirmed findings from the experiment, as the regression model indicated that sagebrush was better defended during wetter and hotter seasons. Reports from the literature indicated that sagebrush is extremely sensitive to water availability in the soil. We suggest that water availability may directly affect resistance of herbivory as well as sensitivity to cues of damage. Costs and benefits of allocating resources to defensive traits may vary with environmental conditions.

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“…sativum ) as the experimental (focal) plant because it has been shown to exhibit risk sensitivity (adjustment of rooting strategies based on risk aversion related to poor growth conditions) as an adaptive strategy [38], and responses to neighbouring roots have been reported (e.g. [7,39]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighbour presence, not identity, influences root and shoot allocation in pea

2017

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Competition is a key feature that structures the composition of plant communities. A growing body of evidence is showing that the presence of neighbours, especially belowground neighbours, induces varied morphological responses in plants. However, in many species, it is not known whether neighbour identity also influences plant morphological responses such as biomass allocation patterns. To assess plant response to above- and belowground neighbour presence and identity, we conducted a greenhouse experiment consisting of conspecific (pea; Pisum sativum L.) and heterospecific (oat; Avena sativa L.) neighbours growing with a P. sativum focal plant. Four interaction regimes were constructed including shoot, root, or ‘full’ interaction (root & shoot) treatments, as well as a control with no interactions permitted. Our results showed that pea plants responded negatively to the presence of neighbours, and in particular, the presence of belowground neighbours. Treatments where belowground interactions were permitted (full and root interactions) had lower root and shoot mass fractions (R:S ratios) than where shoot interactions were permitted. Shoot and root allocation and R:S ratios of focal pea plants were not affected by neighbour identity, suggesting that neighbour presence, but not identity, influenced allocation patterns. The impact on P. sativum of a neighbouring competitor was more prominent than neighbour identity, showing that some plants may not discriminate between the identity of neighbours even though they are capable of responding to their presence.

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Pea Plants Show Risk Sensitivity

Cited by 65 publications

References 21 publications

Increases and fluctuations in nutrient availability do not promote dominance of alien plants in synthetic communities of common natives

Increases and fluctuations in nutrient availability do not promote dominance of alien plants in synthetic communities of common natives

Precipitation affects plant communication and defense

Neighbour presence, not identity, influences root and shoot allocation in pea

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