Surviving Catastrophe: Resource Allocation and Plant Interactions Among the Mosses of Mount St. Helens Volcano

Plants have limited resources to invest in reproduction, vegetative growth and defence against herbivorous. Trade-off in resources allocation promotes changes in plant traits that may affect higher trophic levels. The trade-off between vegetative growth and defence, and their indirect effects on herbivory in Copaifera langsdorffii was evaluated during two consecutive years of high and low reproductive investment of host plant. We asked: (i) does the resource investment on reproduction causes a depletion in vegetative growth as predicted by CNBH, resulting in more availability of resources to be allocated for defence? (ii) does the variation in resource allocation for growth and defence between years of high and low fruiting leads to indirect changes in herbivory? Thirty-five trees located in a cerrado area were monitored during 2008 (high fruiting) and 2009 (no fruiting) years to evaluate the differential investment in vegetative traits (biomass, growth and number of ramifications), plant defence (tannin concentration and plant hypersensitivity) and herbivory. During fruiting year, woody biomass negatively affected tannin concentration, indicating that fruit production restricted the resources which could be invested both in growth and defence. In addition, plant resistance and galling attack were positively influenced by tannin concentration and leaf biomass, suggesting that plants’ resistance to herbivory is a good proxy of plant defence and an effective defence strategy for C. langsdorffii. In summary, the supra-annual fruiting pattern promoted several effects on plant development, demonstrating the importance of evaluating different plants traits when characterizing the vegetative investment of a species. As expected, the trade-off promoted changes in defence compounds production and patterns of herbivory. The understanding of this important element of insect-plant interactions will be fundamental to decipher coevolutionary life histories and interactions between plants reproduction and herbivores attack. These direct and indirect trajectories of animal-plant interactions are important keys for the development of appropriate strategies for diversity conservation in tropical areas.

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Females restrict the position of domatia and suffer more herbivory than hermaphrodites in Myriocarpa longipes, a neotropical facultative myrmecophyte

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467421000584 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Mario A. Sandoval-Molina ◽

Bernardo Rafael Lugo-García ◽

Alan Daniel Mendoza-Mendoza ◽

Mariusz Krzysztof Janczur

Keyword(s):

Resource Allocation ◽

Resource Competition ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Herbivore Damage ◽

Ant Colonies ◽

Hollow Structures ◽

Size Number ◽

Competition Hypothesis ◽

Investment In Reproduction ◽

Competition For Resources

Abstract Domatia are hollow structures in plants occupied by ant colonies, in turn ants provide protection against herbivores. In plants, competition for resources has driven sex-related changes in the patterns of resource allocation to life-history traits and defence traits. The resource-competition hypothesis (RCH) proposes that female plants due to their higher investment in reproduction will allocate fewer resources to defence production, showing greater herbivore damage than other sexual forms. We hypothesise the existence of sex-related differences in defensive traits of domatia-bearing plants, being female plants less defended due to differences in domatia traits, such as size, number of domatia and their position, exhibiting more herbivore damage than hermaphrodite plants of Myriocarpa longipes, a facultative neotropical myrmecophyte. We found eight species of ants inhabiting domatia; some species co-inhabited the same plant, even the same branch. Our results are consistent with the predictions of RCH, as female plants had ant-inhabited domatia restricted to the middle position of their branches and exhibited greater herbivore damage in leaves than hermaphrodites. However, we did not find differences in domatia size and leaf area between sexual forms. Our study provides evidence for intersexual differences in domatia position and herbivory in a facultative ant–plant mutualism in M. longipes. We highlight the importance of considering the plant sex in ant–plant interactions. Differences in resource allocation related to sexual reproduction could influence the outcome of ant–plant interactions.

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Folk-economic beliefs as moral intuitions

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000456 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Author(s):

Neil Malhotra

Keyword(s):

Resource Allocation ◽

Moral Intuitions ◽

Economic Beliefs ◽

Evolutionary Explanations

AbstractAlthough Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) cataloguing of and evolutionary explanations for folk-economic beliefs is important and valuable, the authors fail to connect their theories to existing explanations for why people do not think like economists. For instance, people often have moral intuitions akin to principles of fairness and justice that conflict with utilitarian approaches to resource allocation.

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Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

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Mother or Wife?

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000124 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 232-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Phia S. Salter ◽

Glenn Adams

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Resource Allocation ◽

Cultural Psychology ◽

The United States ◽

Personal Relationship ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Church Membership ◽

Cultural Dynamics ◽

Psychology Perspective ◽

Cultural Ecological

Inspired by “Mother or Wife” African dilemma tales, the present research utilizes a cultural psychology perspective to explore the dynamic, mutual constitution of personal relationship tendencies and cultural-ecological affordances for neoliberal subjectivity and abstracted independence. We administered a resource allocation task in Ghana and the United States to assess the prioritization of conjugal/nuclear relationships over consanguine/kin relationships along three dimensions of sociocultural variation: nation (American and Ghanaian), residence (urban and rural), and church membership (Pentecostal Charismatic and Traditional Western Mission). Results show that tendencies to prioritize nuclear over kin relationships – especially spouses over parents – were greater among participants in the first compared to the second of each pair. Discussion considers issues for a cultural psychology of cultural dynamics.

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Application of Information Introduced to Dynamic Message Processing and Enjoyment

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000195 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 196-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Byungho Park ◽

Rachel L. Bailey

Keyword(s):

Resource Allocation ◽

Recognition Memory ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Orienting Response ◽

Structural Features ◽

Cognitive Resources ◽

Coding System ◽

Message Complexity ◽

Cognitive Resource ◽

Cognitive Overload

Abstract. In an effort to quantify message complexity in such a way that predictions regarding the moment-to-moment cognitive and emotional processing of viewers would be made, Lang and her colleagues devised the coding system information introduced (or ii). This coding system quantifies the number of structural features that are known to consume cognitive resources and considers it in combination with the number of camera changes (cc) in the video, which supply additional cognitive resources owing to their elicitation of an orienting response. This study further validates ii using psychophysiological responses that index cognitive resource allocation and recognition memory. We also pose two novel hypotheses regarding the confluence of controlled and automatic processing and the effect of cognitive overload on enjoyment of messages. Thirty television advertisements were selected from a pool of 172 (all 20 s in length) based on their ii/cc ratio and ratings for their arousing content. Heart rate change over time showed significant deceleration (indicative of increased cognitive resource allocation) for messages with greater ii/cc ratios. Further, recognition memory worsened as ii/cc increased. It was also found that message complexity increases both automatic and controlled allocations to processing, and that the most complex messages may have created a state of cognitive overload, which was received as enjoyable by the participants in this television context.

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