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35 results for “Defensive traits”
Data from: Evidence for reductions in physical and chemical plant defense traits in island flora
<p>Reduced defense against large herbivores has been suggested to be part of the "island syndrome" in plants. However, empirical evidence for this pattern is mixed. In this paper, we present two studies that compare putative physical and chemical defense traits from plants on the California Channel Islands and nearby mainland based on sampling of both field and common garden plants. In the first study, we focus on five pairs of woody shrubs from three island and three mainland locations and find evidence for increased leaf area, decreased marginal leaf spines, and decreased concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides in island plants. We observed similar increases in leaf area and decreases in defense traits when comparing island and mainland genotypes grown together in botanic gardens, suggesting that trait differences are not solely driven by abiotic differences between island and mainland sites. In the second study, we conducted a common garden experiment with a perennial herb—<em>Stachys bullata </em>(Lamiaceae)—collected from two island and four mainland locations. Compared to their mainland relatives, island genotypes show highly reduced glandular trichomes and a nearly 100-fold reduction in mono- and sesquiterpene compounds from leaf surfaces. Island genotypes also had significantly higher specific leaf area, somewhat lower rates of gas exchange, and greater aboveground biomass than mainland genotypes across two years of study, potentially reflecting a broader shift in growth habit. Together, our results provide evidence for reduced expression of putative defense traits in island plants, though these results may reflect adaptation to both biotic (i.e., the historical absence of large herbivores) and climatic conditions on islands.</p>
Data from: Landscape variation in defense traits along gradients of multiple resources in a tropical savanna plant
<p><span>Many plant species are widely distributed and consequently are exposed to multiple abiotic factors and diverse herbivores, each of which may distinctly affect the magnitude of different defense traits.</span><span> </span><span>Alternative theories for optimal allocation to plant defense traits predict both positive and negative associations between magnitude of defense and resource availability. These predictions may apply even within species. </span><span>This </span><span>suggests potential for a single species' patterns of association of defense traits and resources to vary with both the type of defense and identity of resource, but relatively few studies have explored intraspecific variation in multiple defense traits along several resource gradients simultaneously. </span><span>In order to address this gap, especially in an ecosystem dominated by large mammalian herbivores, we assessed relationships between multiple resources (rainfall, soil N, and soil P) and plant defense traits (prickle density, phenolics, and lignin content) using a widely distributed tropical savanna herb, <em>Solanum</em> <em>incanum</em>, growing in naturally occurring resource gradients within the Serengeti National Park. </span>We found substantial intraspecific variation in all three defense traits across sites (n =43). Variation in prickle density was positively associated with rainfall and soil P, but not soil N. In contrast to prickle density, phenolics and lignin were uncorrelated with all three resource gradients. This independent association of soil P with a carbon-based defense, prickle density, suggests potential for resources that are not components of defenses to influence allocation to defense traits. Such influence may reflect association between resource and herbivore abundance and/or preference. These varied patterns in resource-defense associations further emphasize the tremendous variation in anti-herbivore traits which may be influenced by different plant resources and highlight the need to consider multiple resource gradients in understanding evolution of plant traits.</p>
Data from: Evidence for reductions in physical and chemical plant defense traits in island flora
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Data from: Landscape variation in defense traits along gradients of multiple resources in a tropical savanna plant
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Data from: The demographic effects of functional traits: an integral projection model approach reveals population-level consequences of reproduction-defense tradeoffs
Quantitatively linking individual variation in functional traits to demography is a necessary step to advance our understanding of trait-based ecological processes. We constructed a population model for Asclepias syriaca to identify how functional traits affect vital rates and population growth and whether tradeoffs in chemical defense and demography alter population growth. Plants with higher foliar cardenolides had lower fiber, cellulose, and lignin levels, as well as decreased sexual and clonal reproduction. Average cardenolide concentrations had the strongest effect on population growth. In both the sexual and clonal pathway, the tradeoff between reproduction and defense affected population growth. We found that both increasing the mean of the distribution of individual plant values for cardenolides and herbivory decreased population growth. However, increasing the variance in both defense and herbivory increased population growth. Functional traits can impact population growth and quantifying individual-level variation in traits should be included in assessments of population-level processes.
Data from: Herbivores and plant defenses affect selection on plant reproductive traits more strongly than pollinators
Pollinators and herbivores can both affect the evolutionary diversification of plant reproductive traits. However, plant defenses frequently alter antagonistic and mutualistic interactions and therefore variation in plant defenses may alter patterns of herbivore- and pollinator-mediated selection on plant traits. We tested this hypothesis by conducting a common garden field experiment using 50 clonal genotypes of white clover (Trifolium repens) that varied in a Mendelian inherited chemical antiherbivore defense—the production of hydrogen cyanide (HCN). To evaluate whether plant defenses alter herbivore- and/or pollinator-mediated selection, we factorially crossed chemical defense (25 cyanogenic and 25 acyanogenic genotypes), herbivore damage (herbivore suppression) and pollination (hand-pollination). We found that herbivores weakened selection for increased inflorescence production, suggesting that large displays are costly in the presence of herbivores. In addition, herbivores weakened selection on flower size but only among acyanogenic plants, suggesting that plant defenses reduce the strength of herbivore-mediated selection. Pollinators did not independently affect selection on any trait, although pollinators weakened selection for later flowering among cyanogenic plants. Overall, cyanogenic plant defenses consistently increased the strength of positive directional selection on reproductive traits. Herbivores and pollinators both strengthened and weakened the strength of selection on reproductive traits, although herbivores imposed ~2.7× stronger selection than pollinators across all traits. Contrary to the view that pollinators are the most important agents of selection on reproductive traits, our data show that selection on reproductive traits is driven primarily by variation in herbivory and plant defenses in this system.
Data set for: Leaf trait association in relation to herbivore defense, drought resistance, and economics in a tropical invasive plant
<p><strong><span>Premsie</span></strong><span>: </span><span>Exploring how functional traits vary and covary is important to understand plant responses to environmental change. However, we have limited understanding of the ways multiple functional traits vary and covary within invasive species.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Methods</span></strong><span>:</span> <span>We measured 12 leaf traits of an invasive plant <em>Chromolaena odorata</em>, associated with plant or leaf economics, herbivore defense, and drought resistance on 10 introduced populations from Asia and 12 native populations from America, selected across a broad range of climatic conditions, and grown in a common garden</span><span>.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Results</span></strong><span>: </span><span>Species'</span> <span>range and climatic conditions influenced leaf traits, but trait variation across climate space differed between the introduced and native ranges. Traits that confer defense against herbivores and drought resistance were associated with economic strategy, but the patterns differed by range. Plants from introduced populations that were at the fast-return end of the spectrum (high photosynthetic capacity) had high physical defense traits (high trichome density), whereas plants from native populations that were at the fast-return end of the spectrum had high drought escape traits (early leaf senescence and high percentage of withered shoots).</span></p> <p><strong> <span>Conclusions</span></strong><span>:</span> <span>Our results indicate that invasive plants can rapidly adapt to novel environmental conditions. <em>C. odorata</em> showed multiple different functional trait covariation patterns and clines in the native and introduced ranges. Our results emphasize that interaction between multiple traits or functions should be considered when investigating the adaptive evolution of invasive plants.</span></p>
Invader defense traits in France, Japan, and the USA: dataset and R code
<p>This record includes leaf trait data for 44 species sampled in France, Japan, and the USA. R code is associated with analyses for publication.</p>
Data from: Are all forms of defense lost on islands? Persistence of an indirect defensive trait in six island colonists from New Zealand
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The loss of defense hypothesis posits that island colonizers experience a release from predation on the mainland and subsequently lose their defensive adaptations. However, while support for the hypothesis from direct defensive traits is abundant, far less is known about indirect defensive traits. Leaf domatia are cave-like structures produced on the underside of leaves that facilitate an indirect defensive interaction with predaceous and microbivorous mites. I tested the loss of defense hypothesis in six domatia-bearing taxa inhabiting New Zealand and its offshore islands. No support for the loss of defense hypothesis was found. Changes in domatia investment were instead associated with changes in leaf size – a trait that has been repeatedly observed to undergo rapid evolution on islands. Overall results suggest that not all types of defense are lost on islands. </span></p>
Ecosystem stability is determined by plant defense functional traits and population stability under mowing in a semi-arid temperate steppe
<ol> <li><span>As a common grassland management practice in many high-latitude regions worldwide, mowing has great impacts on grassland functioning and stability. Species richness, species asynchrony and species stability have been suggested as central in responses to environmental change. Mowing can evoke plant defense systems due to physical damages to plants. However, no studies have comprehensively evaluated the role of plant defense functional traits, species richness, species asynchrony and stability in ecosystem functioning under mowing regimes across time-scales. </span></li> <li> <span>In the present study, we set up short-term (4-years) and long-term (16-years) mowing experiments with three stubble heights (control, 10 cm, 2 cm) in a temperate steppe of Inner Mongolia. We investigated the effects of mowing-induced changes in distribution metrics associated with plant defense traits, i.e. mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis of trait distribution, on ecosystem stability of grassland communities using structural equation modeling.</span> </li> <li><span>We found that grassland ecosystem stability was enhanced by increasing mowing duration and decreasing stubble height. Mowing-induced increases in abundance and diversity of plant defense traits contributed to greater ecosystem stability by enhancing species asynchrony and population stability. Moreover, we found that mowing enhanced the abundance and diversity of plant defense traits of dominant species and contributed to population stability and species asynchrony, thus enhancing temporal stability of grassland ecosystems. </span></li> <li><span>These results demonstrate the important roles of plant defense traits in maintaining stability of grasslands under mowing, and highlight that, in addition to species richness, asynchrony and population stability, plant functional defense trait act in stabilizing ecosystem functions under human-induced environmental changes.</span></li> </ol>
Ecosystem stability is determined by plant defense functional traits and population stability under mowing in a semi-arid temperate steppe
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Plant defense trait responses to grazing along an aridity gradient in Inner Mongolian grasslands
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Evolutionary trajectories of multiple defense traits across phylogenetic and geographic scales in Vitis
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Data from: The demographic effects of functional traits: an integral projection model approach reveals population-level consequences of reproduction-defense tradeoffs
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Spine and dine: A key defensive trait promotes ecological success in spiny ants
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Data set for: Leaf trait association in relation to herbivore defense, drought resistance, and economics in a tropical invasive plant
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Data from: Herbivores and plant defenses affect selection on plant reproductive traits more strongly than pollinators
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Data from: Brandt’s vole (Lasiopodomys brandtii) affects the dominant position of three gramineous species by altering defense traits and interspecific competition
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Data from: Are all forms of defense lost on islands? Persistence of an indirect defensive trait in six island colonists from New Zealand
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Change in threespine stickleback defensive traits, following brook trout introduction
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