Robust views on plasticity and biodiversity

Theißen, Günter; Melzer, Rainer

doi:10.1093/aob/mcw066

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…Central to developmental novelties have been repeated whole-and partial genome duplications [47,48] (Table 1). The resulting genetic redundancy allowed for the accumulation of cryptic genetic variation by sub-and neofunctionalization, improving fitness and ultimately contributing to increased developmental complexity, robustness, and diversity [5]. Interestingly, the progressive sophistication of traits and modularity at the macroscopic level is mirrored by the increased redundancy and complexity of gene networks and the rewiring of genetic circuits [49], allowing both the fine tuning of the robustness-to-plasticity balance and the complex adaptive responses in plants [5,37,50].…”

Section: Evolutionary Innovations and Plant Biomass Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Flowering Plants in the Anthropocene: A Political Agenda

Negrutiu

Frohlich

Hamant

2020

Trends in Plant Science

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Flowering plants are the foundation of human civilization, providing biomass for food, fuel, and materials to satisfy human needs, dependent on fertile soil, adequate water, and favorable weather. Conversely, failure of any of these inputs has caused catastrophes. Today, human appropriation of biomass is threatening planetary boundaries, inducing social and political unrest worldwide. Human societies are bound to rethink agriculture and forestry to restore and safeguard natural resources while improving the overall quality of life. Here, we explore why and how. Through an evolutionary and quantitative analysis of agriculture, and bridging plant and Earth sciences, we anticipate the advent of a research and policy framework, integrating plant science in all sectors: the economy, local and global governance, and geopolitics. Plant Biomass: The Green Buffer of the AnthropocenePlants provide energy and oxygen, sustaining most life forms on land. They also sequester CO 2 , create water reservoirs and purify water, fix N 2 through symbiosis, provide organic matter that enriches soils, and affect the weather. The Earth 'is a blue planet, but it is a green world' [1]. The primary producers of land biomass (see Glossary) are plants and, as such, are 20 times more abundant than the mass of primary consumers [2]. For a hundred million years, the main contributors have been flowering plants (angiosperms). They facilitated land ecosystem diversification and enabled the advent of agriculture, thus priming the Anthropocene [3][4][5]. For a few, this is an obvious proposition. For many, this assertion deserves a supportive narrative, which we present here.The Great Acceleration of change during the Anthropocene [6] has created conditions for local and global state shifts in land use and water availability, leading to a loss of resilience at all scales in both society and ecosystems [7][8][9][10][11]. Food security issues are fueling conflicts worldwide and are expected to become more prominent in the near future [12,13]. Thus, the constrained civilization of the 21st century ought to make the switch 'from balance of to balance with nature' [14]. Reframing the relationship between humans and the Earth System has to integrate three complementary and interdependent notions: planetary boundaries, the critical zone, and planetary health.The concept of planetary boundaries [15] identifies thresholds for a series of biological and geophysical phenomena, essentially biosphere integrity, water availability, global pollution, and climate change. The critical zone refers to the interaction zone among biotic phenomena and geological systems through which biological resources contribute the so-called 'biological added value ' [16]. This zone, where human activities exert most of their impacts, marks the crossroad of planetary boundaries. Planetary health is understood as the health of humans, societies, and ecosystems all combined. Although this is not always recognized, planetary boundaries, the critical zone, and planetary health all poin...

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Section: Evolutionary Innovations and Plant Biomass Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a hundred million years, the main contributors have been flowering plants (angiosperms). They facilitated land ecosystem diversification and enabled the advent of agriculture, thus priming the Anthropocene [3][4][5]. For a few, this is an obvious proposition.…”

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confidence: 99%

Flowering Plants in the Anthropocene: A Political Agenda

Negrutiu

Frohlich

Hamant

2020

Trends in Plant Science

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“…Moreover, phenotypic plasticity can be discussed as a means of evolution affecting biodiversity by enabling better niche use or the exploitation of several niches. Evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity has led to the success of organisms in novel habitats, and potentially contributes to genetic differentiation and speciation (Miner et al, 2005; West-Eberhard, 2005; Theißen and Melzer, 2016). An expanding body of work examines how plasticity can affect all levels of ecological organization through effects on demographic parameters, but also through direct and indirect species interactions, such as competition, predation, and coexistence (reviewed in Miner et al, 2005).…”

Section: Phenotypic Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory Ecology of Predator-Induced Phenotypic Plasticity

Weiss

2019

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Ecological communities are organized in trophic levels that share manifold interactions forming complex food webs. Infochemicals can further modify these interactions, e.g., by inducing defenses in prey. The micro-crustacean Daphnia is able to respond to predator-specific chemical cues indicating an increased predation risk. Daphnia shows plastic responses by adapting its morphology, behavior, and physiology, increasing organism, and population fitness. This stabilizes community structures. This review will describe the progress that has been made in understanding the high degree of plasticity observed in the model crustacean Daphnia. I summarize current knowledge on the processes of predator detection, ranging from the nature of biologically active chemical cues to the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. With this, I aim to provide a comprehensive overview on the molecular mechanisms of ad hoc environmental phenotypic adaptation. In times of climate change and pollution understanding information transfer in aquatic systems is valuable as it will allow us to predict whether and how community structures are being affected.

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“…According to some authors, robustness constrains and contrasts evolvability, with negative effects on biodiversity: the rationale is that, if mutations and environmental changes have little effect, there is not much variation on which selection can act. Others (e.g., Kitano 2004;Wagner 2008;Masel and Trotter 2010;Melzer and Theißen 2016;Theißen and Melzer 2016) regard this view as simplistic and even contend that robustness may promote evolvability, i.e. the ability to produce heritable phenotypic variation (Pigliucci 2008).…”

Section: Evo-devo: Evolvability Robustness Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity, Disparity and Evolvability

Minelli

2019

History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences

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A key problem in conservation biology is how to measure biological diversity. Taxic diversity (the number of species in a community or in a local biota) is not necessarily the most important aspect, if what most matters is to evaluate how the loss of the different species may impact on the future of the surviving species and communities. Alternative approaches focus on functional diversity (a measure of the distribution of the species among the different 'jobs' in the ecosystem), others on morphological disparity, still others on phylogenetic diversity. There are three major reasons to prioritize the survival of species which provide the largest contributions to the overall phylogenetic diversity. First, evolutionarily isolated lineages are frequently characterized by unique traits. Second, conserving phylogenetically diverse sets of taxa is valuable because it conserves some sort of trait diversity, itself important in so far as it helps maintain ecosystem functioning, although a strict relationships between phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity cannot be taken for granted. Third, in this way we maximize the "evolutionary potential" depending on the evolvability of the survivors. This suggests an approach to conservation problems focussed on evolvability, robustness and phenotypic plasticity of developmental systems in the face of natural selection: in other terms, an approach based on evolutionary developmental biology.

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Robust views on plasticity and biodiversity

Cited by 7 publications

References 35 publications

Flowering Plants in the Anthropocene: A Political Agenda

Flowering Plants in the Anthropocene: A Political Agenda

Sensory Ecology of Predator-Induced Phenotypic Plasticity

Biodiversity, Disparity and Evolvability

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