Faculty Opinions recommendation of Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M van Dam
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Communication ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Plant Herbivore

scholarly journals Comment on “Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Bass ◽  
André Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Communication ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Plant Herbivore

Zu et al (Science, 19 Jun 2020, p. 1377) propose that an ‘information arms-race’ between plants and herbivores explains plant-herbivore communication at the community level. However, our analysis shows that key assumptions of the proposed model either a) conflict with standard evolutionary theory or b) are not supported by the available evidence. We also show that the presented statistical patterns can be explained more parsimoniously (e.g. through a null model) without invoking an unlikely process of community selection.

scholarly journals Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 368 (6497) ◽  
pp. 1377-1381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengjuan Zu ◽  
Karina Boege ◽  
Ek del-Val ◽  
Meredith C. Schuman ◽  
Philip C. Stevenson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Communication ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Plant Herbivore

Plants emit an extraordinary diversity of chemicals that provide information about their identity and mediate their interactions with insects. However, most studies of this have focused on a few model species in controlled environments, limiting our capacity to understand plant-insect chemical communication in ecological communities. Here, by integrating information theory with ecological and evolutionary theories, we show that a stable information structure of plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can emerge from a conflicting information process between plants and herbivores. We corroborate this information “arms race” theory with field data recording plant-VOC associations and plant-herbivore interactions in a tropical dry forest. We reveal that plant VOC redundancy and herbivore specialization can be explained by a conflicting information transfer. Information-based communication approaches can increase our understanding of species interactions across trophic levels.

scholarly journals Response to Comment on “Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities"

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengjuan Zu ◽  
Karina Boege ◽  
Ek del Val ◽  
Meredith Christine Schuman ◽  
Phil Stevenson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arms Race ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Neutral Model ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Circular Reasoning ◽  
Plant Volatile ◽  
Herbivore Interactions ◽  
Plant Herbivore ◽  
Herbivore Communities ◽  
Simple Parameter

Zu et al. 2020 (1) proposed a simple, parameter-free, information-arms-race theory to explain the distributions of plant-herbivore interactions and plant-volatile associations observed in plant-herbivore communities. We received a comment by Bass and Kessler (Oct. 2020) questioning this theory and suggesting that a simpler neutral model can explain the observed distributions. This, with our response, went to peer review and was not published (Oct. 29, 2020). The authors have decided to publish their comment on EcoEvoRxiv (2) and so here, we are posting our reply. In sum, we present arguments to show that the comment from Bass and Kessler is based on an incorrect understanding of our study and furthermore suffers from circular reasoning, and that therefore their conclusions are not supported.

scholarly journals Response to Comment on “Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengjuan Zu ◽  
Serguei ◽  
Karina Boege ◽  
Ek del Val ◽  
Meredith Christine Schuman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arms Race ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Neutral Model ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Circular Reasoning ◽  
Plant Volatile ◽  
Herbivore Interactions ◽  
Plant Herbivore ◽  
Herbivore Communities ◽  
Simple Parameter

Zu et al. 2020 (1) proposed a simple, parameter-free, information-arms-race theory to explain the distributions of plant-herbivore interactions and plant-volatile associations observed in plant-herbivore communities. We received a comment by Bass and Kessler (Oct. 2020) questioning this theory and suggesting that a simpler neutral model can explain the observed distributions. This, with our response, went to peer review and was not published (Oct. 29, 2020). The authors have decided to publish their comment on EcoEvoRxiv (2) and so here, we are posting our reply. In sum, we present arguments to show that the comment from Bass and Kessler is based on an incorrect understanding of our study and furthermore suffers from circular reasoning, and that therefore their conclusions are not supported.

scholarly journals Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Desiree L. Narango ◽  
Douglas W. Tallamy ◽  
Kimberley J. Shropshire
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Host Plant ◽  
Ecosystem Function ◽  
Functional Food ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Herbivore Interactions ◽  
Plant Herbivore

AbstractFunctional food webs are essential for the successful conservation of ecological communities, and in terrestrial systems, food webs are built on a foundation of coevolved interactions between plants and their consumers. Here, we collate published data on host plant ranges and associated host plant-Lepidoptera interactions from across the contiguous United States and demonstrate that among ecosystems, distributions of plant-herbivore interactions are consistently skewed, with a small percentage of plant genera supporting the majority of Lepidoptera. Plant identities critical for retaining interaction diversity are similar and independent of geography. Given the importance of Lepidoptera to food webs and ecosystem function, efficient and effective restoration of degraded landscapes depends on the inclusion of such ‘keystone’ plants.

scholarly journals A continuum of specialists and generalists in empirical communities

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothée Poisot ◽  
Sonia Kéfi ◽  
Serge Morand ◽  
Michal Stanko ◽  
Pablo Marquet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Bipartite Networks ◽  
Physical Constraints ◽  
Animal Hosts ◽  
Plant Herbivore ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Different Levels

Understanding the persistence of specialists and generalists within ecological communities is a topical research question, with far-reaching consequences for the maintenance of functional diversity. Although theoretical studies indicate that restricted conditions may be necessary to achieve co-occurrence of specialists and generalists, analyses of larger empirical (and species-rich) communities reveal the pervasiveness of coexistence. In this paper, we analyze 175 ecological bipartite networks of three interaction types (animal hosts-parasite, plant-herbivore and plant-pollinator), and measure the extent to which these communities are composed of species with different levels of specificity in their biotic interactions. We find a continuum from specialism to generalism. Furthermore, we demonstrate that diversity tends to be greatest in networks with intermediate connectance, and argue this is because of physical constraints in the filling of networks.

scholarly journals Macroevolutionary chemical escalation in an ancient plant-herbivore arms race

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (43) ◽  
pp. 18062-18066 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. X. Becerra ◽  
K. Noge ◽  
D. L. Venable
Keyword(s):  
Arms Race ◽  
Plant Herbivore

A plant-herbivore information “arms race”

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 368 (6497) ◽  
pp. 1324.16-1326
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Sugden
Keyword(s):  
Arms Race ◽  
Plant Herbivore

scholarly journals Did a plant-herbivore arms race drive chemical diversity in Euphorbia?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ernst ◽  
L.-F. Nothias ◽  
J. J. J. van der Hooft ◽  
R. R. Silva ◽  
C. H. Saslis-Lagoudakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Adaptation ◽  
Evolutionary Time ◽  
Cosmopolitan Distribution ◽  
Ecological Relevance ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Geographic Separation ◽  
Plant Herbivore

AbstractThe genus Euphorbia is among the most diverse and species-rich plant genera on Earth, exhibiting a near-cosmopolitan distribution and extraordinary chemical diversity, especially across highly toxic macro-and polycyclic diterpenoids. However, very little is known about drivers and evolutionary origins of chemical diversity within Euphorbia. Here, we investigate 43 Euphorbia species to understand how geographic separation over evolutionary time has impacted chemical differentiation. We show that the structurally highly diverse Euphorbia diterpenoids are significantly reduced in species native to the Americas, compared to the Eurasian and African continents, where the genus originated. The localization of these compounds to young stems and roots suggest ecological relevance in herbivory defense and immunomodulatory defense mechanisms match diterpenoid levels, indicating chemoevolutionary adaptation to reduced herbivory pressure.One Sentence SummaryGlobal chemo-evolutionary adaptation of Euphorbia affected immunomodulatory defense mechanisms.

Plant-Animal Interactions

Monteverde ◽  
2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Greg Murray ◽  
Sharon Kinsman
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Fleshy Fruit ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Plant Seed ◽  
Seed Disperser ◽  
Nesting Sites ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions ◽  
Whole Plants ◽  
Plant Herbivore ◽  
Plant Pollinator

The term “plant-animal interactions” includes a diverse array of biologically important relationships. Plant-herbivore relationships (in which an animal feeds on whole plants or parts of them) are examples of exploitation, because one species benefits from the interaction while the other suffers. Plant-pollinator and plant-seed disperser relationships (in which animals disperse pollen or seeds, usually in return for a food reward) are examples of mutualisms because they are beneficial to both parties. Another class of plant-animal mutualisms involves plants that provide nesting sites and/or food rewards to ants, which often protect the plant from herbivores or competing plants. Plantpollinator and plant-seed disperser mutualisms probably originated as cases of exploitation of plants by animals (Thompson 1982, Crepet 1983, Tiffney 1986). Many of the distinctive plant structures associated with animal-mediated pollen and seed dispersal (e.g., flowers, nectaries, attractive odors, fleshy fruit pulp, and thickened seed coats) presumably evolved to attract consumers of floral or seed resources while preventing them from digesting the pollen or seeds. mutualisms in structuring ecological communities. Competition and predator-prey interactions were more common subjects. Botanists had described the characteristics of the plant and animal players in pollination and seed dispersal mutualisms (Knuth 1906, 1908, 1909, Ridley 1930, van der Pijl 1969, Faegri and van der Pijl 1979), but these descriptive works did not fully examine plant-animal mutualisms in the context of communities. The opportunity to work in the neotropics, facilitated by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), and other institutions, attracted the attention of temperate-zone ecologists to the mutualisms that are much more conspicuous components of tropical systems than of temperate ones (Wheelwright 1988b). Plant-pollinator interactions have attracted more attention in Monteverde than plant-frugivore interactions, and plant-herbivore interactions remain conspicuously understudied. This imbalance probably reflects the interests of those who first worked at Monteverde and later returned with their own students, rather than differences in the significance of the interactions at Monteverde or elsewhere. Aside from a few studies of herbivory in particular species (e.g., Peck, “Agroecology of Prosapia,”), even basic surveys remain to be done.

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