Exploring the Local and Regional Effects of Plant Diversity on Plant Herbivore Interactions

Exploring the Local and Regional Effects of Plant Diversity on Plant Herbivore Interactions PDF Author: Diego Salazar (Ph.D.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal-plant relationships
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
The study of biological diversity and its effects on ecosystem functioning and species interactions has always been a fundamental part of biology. The accelerating loss of species in conjunction with an increasing change in the natural environment has underlined the importance of the role that biodiversity has on the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of natural systems. In this dissertation I explore the effect of local and regional patterns of plant diversity in plant-herbivore interactions. Furthermore, this work goes beyond the classical concepts of taxonomical diversity and investigates the role of phylogenetic and chemical diversity on plant-herbivore interactions. In chapter one I explore the patters of herbivore diversity along latitudinal gradient by following to widely distributed Piper species from Mexico to Bolivia. Here I show how that changes in herbivore diversity along this latitudinal gradient are likely changing the nature and intensity of the evolutionary herbivore pressures experienced by plants. In chapter two I examine how non-random patterns of seed dispersal by bats are increasing local understory Piper diversity. Furthermore, I show how these changes in local diversity are also reducing Piper herbivore damage due to possible resource dilution effects. This represents the first evidence of a direct link between seed dispersal and plant herbivore interactions. In chapter three I explore the relationship between inter-specific chemical diversity and intra-specific chemical variation. Here I put forward the potential association between the number of dominant secondary compounds present in a particular Piper species and the relative ecological value that said compounds have. Finally, in chapters four and five I use a metabolomic approach to investigate the role that Piper chemical diversity at the community has on species coexistence and community assembly. Here I show how natural Piper communities are more chemically diverse than expected by chance. This section also shows that Piper communities with higher chemical diversity have less herbivore damage. As a unit, this work provides strong evidence of the importance of taxonomical and chemical diversity for plant herbivore interaction.

Exploring the Local and Regional Effects of Plant Diversity on Plant Herbivore Interactions

Exploring the Local and Regional Effects of Plant Diversity on Plant Herbivore Interactions PDF Author: Diego Salazar (Ph.D.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal-plant relationships
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
The study of biological diversity and its effects on ecosystem functioning and species interactions has always been a fundamental part of biology. The accelerating loss of species in conjunction with an increasing change in the natural environment has underlined the importance of the role that biodiversity has on the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of natural systems. In this dissertation I explore the effect of local and regional patterns of plant diversity in plant-herbivore interactions. Furthermore, this work goes beyond the classical concepts of taxonomical diversity and investigates the role of phylogenetic and chemical diversity on plant-herbivore interactions. In chapter one I explore the patters of herbivore diversity along latitudinal gradient by following to widely distributed Piper species from Mexico to Bolivia. Here I show how that changes in herbivore diversity along this latitudinal gradient are likely changing the nature and intensity of the evolutionary herbivore pressures experienced by plants. In chapter two I examine how non-random patterns of seed dispersal by bats are increasing local understory Piper diversity. Furthermore, I show how these changes in local diversity are also reducing Piper herbivore damage due to possible resource dilution effects. This represents the first evidence of a direct link between seed dispersal and plant herbivore interactions. In chapter three I explore the relationship between inter-specific chemical diversity and intra-specific chemical variation. Here I put forward the potential association between the number of dominant secondary compounds present in a particular Piper species and the relative ecological value that said compounds have. Finally, in chapters four and five I use a metabolomic approach to investigate the role that Piper chemical diversity at the community has on species coexistence and community assembly. Here I show how natural Piper communities are more chemically diverse than expected by chance. This section also shows that Piper communities with higher chemical diversity have less herbivore damage. As a unit, this work provides strong evidence of the importance of taxonomical and chemical diversity for plant herbivore interaction.

Ecology and Evolution of Plant-Herbivore Interactions on Islands

Ecology and Evolution of Plant-Herbivore Interactions on Islands PDF Author: Xoaquín Moreira
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031478142
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
Theory and early empirical work posed that herbivore pressure should be lower on islands than on the mainland owing to lower herbivore abundance and diversity in insular systems. Consequently, plant taxa found on islands are expected to be less protected or even to have lost their defences completely. While early observational studies supported the prediction of lower herbivory and plant defences on islands, recent island-mainland comparisons have yielded mixed results, with some studies finding no differences between islands and mainlands or, surprisingly, higher herbivory and plant defences on islands. In this book, the authors aim to re-assess current theory and initiate a new generation of work on insularity effects on plant-herbivore interactions. This book aims to fill the research gaps by integrating the research that has been done to date and by compiling and summarising new research on insularity effects on plant-herbivore interactions. It provides a critical examination of the patterns in light of classical theory and identifies potential mechanisms or underlying processes. It also aims to raise new questions that will form the basis for a revised and more robust research programme.

Local and Regional Effects on Plant Diversity

Local and Regional Effects on Plant Diversity PDF Author: Gregory R. Houseman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biological productivity
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Get Book Here

Book Description


Microbial Mediation of Plant-Herbivore Interactions

Microbial Mediation of Plant-Herbivore Interactions PDF Author: Pedro Barbosa
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471613244
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 552

Get Book Here

Book Description
Novel Aspects of Insect-Plant Interactions Edited by Pedro Barbosa and Deborah K. Letourneau Focusing on three trophic levels, this study widens the current understanding of the ecological interactions between plants, herbivores, and their parasitoids and predators. Emphasized are the mediating effects of plant-derived allelochemicals on those interactions. The book also covers microorganisms as mediators of intertrophic and intratrophic interactions; theory and mechanisms: plant effects via allelochemicals on the third trophic level; and key roles of plant allelochemicals in survival strategies of herbivores. 1988 (0 471-83276-6) 362 pp. Plant-Animal Interactions Evolutionary Ecology in Tropical and Temperate Regions Edited by Peter W. Price, Thomas M. Lewinsohn, G. Wilson Fernandes and Woodruff W. Benson An outgrowth of an international symposium on Evolutionary Ecology of Tropical Herbivores held at UNICAMP, Brazil, this unique collaborative effort from leading scientists worldwide is the first comparative analysis of the existing ecological systems of temperate and tropical regions. In-depth and timely, the book's manifold analyses includes a discussion of tropical and temperate comparisons; mutualistic relationships between plants and animals; antagonistic relationships between plants and animals; plant-butterfly interactions; specificity in plant utilization; and community patterns in natural and agricultural systems. Amply illustrated with 150 detailed graphics, the book provides a fascinating visual tour of the flora and fauna described. 1991 (0 471-50937-X) 639 pp. Integrated Pest Management Systems and Cotton Production Edited by Raymond E. Frisbie, Kamal M. El-Zik and L. Ted Wilson This work sheds light on the link between the thriving U.S. cotton crop and integrated pest management. It offers a unique theoretical and conceptual framework for studying the cotton-IPM system. Other relevant issues such as the development and use of pest models, quantitative sampling principles in cotton IPM, economic injury levels and thresholds for cotton pests, and strategies and tactics for managing weeds, plant pathogens, nematodes, and insects are also described. Covering every facet of IPM technology, this is a significant contribution to the literature of pest management. 1989 (0 471-81782-1) 437 pp.

The Influence of Plant Neighborhood Diversity on Herbivory and Arthropod Communities in Experimental Tropical Forests Communities

The Influence of Plant Neighborhood Diversity on Herbivory and Arthropod Communities in Experimental Tropical Forests Communities PDF Author: Ellie Timmins
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tropical forests, including the biodiverse Brazilian Atlantic Forest, are crucial for global climate regulation and biodiversity conservation. Conservation efforts seek to regenerate these forests, although herbivory can pose a threat to these secondary succession forests. Previous work suggests that plant diversity can influence herbivore communities, which can influence plant condition and performance. This paper explores the impact of plant neighborhood diversity on herbivory rates and arthropod communities in experimental early-successional tropical forests in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Pioneer plant community assembly experiments conducted in deforested areas adjacent to fragments of Brazilian Atlantic Forests reveal that higher plant neighborhood diversity correlates with lower herbivory rates and greater arthropod species richness, although plant diversity had no impact on arthropod abundance. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how biotic interactions between plants, herbivores, and arthropod assemblages are shaped by plant neighborhood diversity, and therefore of community assembly processes.

The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape Ecosystems

The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape Ecosystems PDF Author: J. Philip Grime
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118223276
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
THE EVOLUTIONARY STRATEGIES THAT SHAPE ECOSYSTEMS In 1837 a young Charles Darwin took his notebook, wrote “I think”, and then sketched a rudimentary, stick-like tree. Each branch of Darwin’s tree of life told a story of survival and adaptation – adaptation of animals and plants not just to the environment but also to life with other living things. However, more than 150 years since Darwin published his singular idea of natural selection, the science of ecology has yet to account for how contrasting evolutionary outcomes affect the ability of organisms to coexist in communities and to regulate ecosystem functioning. In this book Philip Grime and Simon Pierce explain how evidence from across the world is revealing that, beneath the wealth of apparently limitless and bewildering variation in detailed structure and functioning, the essential biology of all organisms is subject to the same set of basic interacting constraints on life-history and physiology. The inescapable resulting predicament during the evolution of every species is that, according to habitat, each must adopt a predictable compromise with regard to how they use the resources at their disposal in order to survive. The compromise involves the investment of resources in either the effort to acquire more resources, the tolerance of factors that reduce metabolic performance, or reproduction. This three-way trade-off is the irreducible core of the universal adaptive strategy theory which Grime and Pierce use to investigate how two environmental filters selecting, respectively, for convergence and divergence in organism function determine the identity of organisms in communities, and ultimately how different evolutionary strategies affect the functioning of ecosystems. This book refl ects an historic phase in which evolutionary processes are finally moving centre stage in the effort to unify ecological theory, and animal, plant and microbial ecology have begun to find a common theoretical framework. Companion website This book has a companion website www.wiley.com/go/grime/evolutionarystrategies with Figures and Tables from the book for downloading.

The Functional Consequences of Biodiversity

The Functional Consequences of Biodiversity PDF Author: Ann P. Kinzig
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691088225
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
Does biodiversity influence how ecosystems function? Might diversity loss affect the ability of ecosystems to deliver services of benefit to humankind? Ecosystems provide food, fuel, fiber, and drinkable water, regulate local and regional climate, and recycle needed nutrients, among other things. An ecosyste's ability to sustain functioning may depend on the number of species residing in the ecosystem--its biological diversity--but this has been a controversial hypothesis. There are many unanswered questions about how and why changes in biodiversity could alter ecosystem functioning. This volume, written by top researchers, synthesizes empirical studies on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and extends that knowledge using a novel and coordinated set of models and theoretical approaches. These experimental and theoretical analyses demonstrate that functioning usually increases with biodiversity, but also reveals when and under what circumstances other relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning might occur. It also accounts for apparent changes in diversity-functioning relationships that emerge over time in disturbed ecosystems, thereby addressing a major controversy in the field. The volume concludes with a blueprint for moving beyond small-scale studies to regional ones--a move of enormous significance for policy and conservation but one that will entail tackling some of the most fundamental challenges in ecology. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Juan Armesto, Claudia Neuhauser, Andy Hector, Clarence Lehman, Peter Kareiva, Sharon Lawler, Peter Chesson, Teri Balser, Mary K. Firestone, Robert Holt, Michel Loreau, Johannes Knops, David Wedin, Peter Reich, Shahid Naeem, Bernhard Schmid, Jasmin Joshi, and Felix Schläpfer.

Positive Plant Interactions and Community Dynamics

Positive Plant Interactions and Community Dynamics PDF Author: Francisco Pugnaire
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439859272
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ever since the concept of the "struggle for life" became the heart of Darwin's theory of evolution, biologists have studied the relevance of interactions for the natural history and evolution of organisms. Although positive interactions among plants have traditionally received little attention, there is now a growing body of evidence showing the ef

Plants and Climate Change

Plants and Climate Change PDF Author: Jelte Rozema
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402044437
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book focuses on how climate affects or affected the biosphere and vice versa both in the present and in the past. The chapters describe how ecosystems from the Antarctic and Arctic, and from other latitudes, respond to global climate change. The papers highlight plant responses to atmospheric CO2 increase, to global warming and to increased ultraviolet-B radiation as a result of stratospheric ozone depletion.

Effects of Resource Distribution on Animal Plant Interactions

Effects of Resource Distribution on Animal Plant Interactions PDF Author: Mark D. Hunter
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080918816
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Get Book Here

Book Description
Aimed primarily at advanced graduate students and professional biologists, this book explores the degree to which animal*b1plant interactions are determined by plant and animal variability. Many of the patterns seen in natural communities appear to result from cascading effects up as well as down the trophic system. Variability among primary producers can influence animal and plant population quality and dynamics, community structure, and the evolution of animal*b1plant interations.