Article
Plant Sciences
Mei Luo, Bin Li, Georg Jander, Shaoqun Zhou
Summary: Non-volatile metabolites play a crucial role in plant-insect interactions, serving as both nutrients and defensive compounds. Functional genetics studies have identified receptors targeting plant non-volatile metabolites in insects, while the understanding of plant receptors for insect-derived molecules is limited. Insect feeding induces changes in plant specialized metabolism, but the effects on core metabolism vary among species. Furthermore, non-volatile metabolites can facilitate tripartite communication in plant communities through direct root-to-root communication and interactions with parasitic plants, mycorrhizae, and the rhizosphere microbiome.
Article
Ecology
Diego Salazar, Robert J. Marquis
Summary: Accumulating evidence suggests that herbivorous insects influence the local composition and richness of Neotropical plant species, particularly in species-rich genera. Species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and chemical diversity all influence the ability of insect herbivores to find and utilize their hosts.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Emmanuel Defossez, Camille Pitteloud, Patrice Descombes, Gaetan Glauser, Pierre-Marie Allard, Tom W. N. Walker, Pilar Fernandez-Conradi, Jean-Luc Wolfender, Loic Pellissier, Sergio Rasmann
Summary: Plants produce a wide diversity of phytochemicals to cope with environmental challenges, which are also sources of numerous medicines. Research suggests that plant chemical diversity is related to species diversity and constrained by trophic, climatic, and topographical factors. By combining phylogenetic information, topographic, edaphic, and climatic variables, phytochemical diversity and its composition of plant communities across landscapes can be predicted.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Diana Maria Galindo-Uribe, Julio Mario Hoyos-Hoyos, Paola Isaacs-Cubides, Nicolas Corral-Gomez, Nicolas Urbina-Cardona
Summary: Taxonomical and functional facets of diversity play a crucial role in understanding the effects of landscape transformation on species assemblages. This study found that anthropogenic land cover types have an impact on anurans, with larger species showing a preference for anthropogenic land cover. The congruence between functional diversity and taxonomic diversity metrics changed when comparing different land cover types, and certain diversity indices were more sensitive to land-use change.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hiroshi Tsugawa, Amit Rai, Kazuki Saito, Ryo Nakabayashi
Summary: Plants and their associated microbial communities produce a vast number of unidentified metabolites with potential for novel pharmaceutical applications. Utilizing metabolomics techniques can unveil molecular networks in plants, aiding in the understanding of metabolic diversity and specialized metabolome functionalities.
NATURAL PRODUCT REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Nia M. Johnson, Regina S. Baucom
Summary: This study investigated the impact of herbicide drift on plant-herbivore interactions and found that it significantly increased the abundance of silverleaf whitefly. The study also revealed a trade-off between resistance to herbicide and whitefly, as well as a positive correlation between whitefly abundance and chlorophyll content. Overall, the research suggests that herbicide exposure to non-target communities can alter herbivore populations and potentially affect biodiversity and weed population dynamics at agricultural interfaces.
Article
Ecology
Tong Qiu, Aaron J. Bell, Jennifer J. Swenson, James S. Clark
Summary: This study investigates how habitat and trait syndromes mediate risks from climate change on ground beetle communities. The researchers synthesized abundance and trait data for 136 species and used remote sensing techniques to obtain habitat information at a continental scale. The results show that habitat has a greater impact on species abundance and community traits compared to climate. The findings have important implications for the designation of critical habitats for carabid conservation.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Huixuan Liao, Robert W. Pal, Ulo Niinemets, Michael Bahn, Bruno E. L. Cerabolini, Shaolin Peng
Summary: Different dimensions of invasion success are associated with different functional traits. Invasion success at the regional scale is related to traits that promote rapid colonization, while invasion success at the local scale is related to traits that are potentially less preferred by herbivores. Studying different dimensions of invasion success separately is important to avoid inconsistent or controversial conclusions.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Leandro G. Cosmo, Lydia F. Yamaguchi, Gabriel M. F. Felix, Massuo J. Kato, Rodrigo Cogni, Martin Pareja
Summary: Plant secondary chemistry influences plant-insect community structure; phytochemical diversity plays a role in shaping the variation in plant secondary chemistry and its impact on community structure. Both compositional and structural dimensions of PD affect herbivory, caterpillar biodiversity, and plant-herbivore network structure at different scales, indicating that PD has distinct roles across biological organization scales.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Pierre Gauzere, Benjamin Blonder, Pierre Denelle, Bertrand Fournier, Matthias Grenie, Leo Delalandre, Tamara Munkemuller, Francois Munoz, Cyrille Violle, Wilfried Thuiller
Summary: In addition to local species abundance, functional trait distinctiveness of species is now recognized as a key driver of community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. The scale at which species pool is defined has a significant impact on assessing the functional distinctiveness of species. Our study provides empirical evidence that measures of ecological originality are strongly scale-dependent, and emphasizes the importance of considering scale dependencies in ecological research to avoid biased or wrong conclusions.
Review
Entomology
Jeremie Goulnik, Sylvain Plantureux, Isabelle Dajoz, Alice Michelot-Antalik
Summary: Permanent grasslands are important habitats for many plant and animal species, including pollinating insects that provide various ecosystem services. A global crisis in pollination ecosystem service has been highlighted in recent decades, partly due to land-use intensification. However, the underlying mechanisms of land-use intensification that affect plant-pollinator interactions and pollination at the grassland scale remain understudied.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Guang Hao, Nan Yang, Yulin Liu, Xinjian Shi, Jinlong Wang, Nianxi Zhao, Hongyuan Li, Anzhi Ren, Yubao Gao
Summary: This study investigated how drought stress, neighbor richness, and season affected the relative neighbor effect in the semiarid Inner Mongolia steppe. The results showed that the effects of drought stress and neighbor richness on the neighbor effect depended on the season. These findings provide empirical evidence of the dynamic nature of plant-plant interactions in response to biotic and abiotic factors.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jia-Yun Zou, Marc W. Cadotte, Claus Baessler, Roland Brandl, Petr Baldrian, Werner Borken, Elisa Stengel, Ya-Huang Luo, Joerg Mueller, Sebastian Seibold
Summary: This study found that both species richness and functional diversity of beetles have significant effects on wood decomposition rate, with functional diversity being linked to beetle biomass and the presence of a large-bodied species. Additionally, beetles have indirect effects on wood decomposition via bacterial diversity, fungal community composition, and fungal biomass.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Gergo Koleszar, Sandor Szabo, Levente Kekedi, Viktor Loki, Zoltan Botta-Dukat, Balazs Andras Lukacs
Summary: The loss of plant functional diversity due to biological invasion is understudied in aquatic plants. This study examined how alien species invasion affects functional diversity of aquatic plant communities by analyzing specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, and leaf area. It was found that alien species invasion leads to significant changes in functional composition and increased biomass production. The study emphasizes the importance of considering local adaptation and cautions against generalizing functional diversity measurements.
Article
Ecology
Vincent Droissart, Laura Azandi, Eric Rostand Onguene, Marie Savignac, Thomas B. Smith, Vincent Deblauwe
Summary: The article introduces an inexpensive (<100 USD) DIY CT system called PICT, designed to continuously film animal activity, particularly suitable for studying pollination, insect behavior, and predator-prey interactions. The system offers adjustable focus distance, infrared illumination, user-set frame rate, resolution, and video compression levels, as well as remote control capability.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Justin W. Baldwin, Dina K. N. Dechmann, Wibke Thies, Susan R. Whitehead
Article
Plant Sciences
Aneirin A. Lott, Catherine P. Freed, Christopher C. Dickinson, Susan R. Whitehead, Eva Collakova, John G. Jelesko
Article
Ecology
Lauren D. Maynard, Heather L. Slinn, Andrea E. Glassmire, Bernal Matarrita-Carranza, Craig D. Dodson, Trang T Nguyen, Megan J. Burroughs, Lee A. Dyer, Christopher S. Jeffrey, Susan R. Whitehead
Article
Ecology
Kayleigh C. Hauri, Andrea E. Glassmire, William C. Wetzel
Summary: Cultivar mixtures have been studied as a means to control pests, with plant chemical diversity influencing interactions between herbivores and predators, and different classes of chemical diversity having varied effects on pest suppression.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Susan R. Whitehead, Ethan Bass, Alexsandra Corrigan, Andre Kessler, Katja Poveda
Summary: The experimental results support the interaction diversity hypothesis, showing that the impact of phytochemical diversity on consumers increases with the richness and structural diversity of compounds. Phenolics exhibit consumer-specific bioactivity, and no compound affects all consumers, suggesting a complex selective landscape exerted by diverse communities of plant consumers to maintain phytochemical diversity in nature.
Editorial Material
Plant Sciences
William C. Wetzel
Article
Ecology
Susan R. Whitehead, Gerald F. Schneider, Ray Dybzinski, Annika S. Nelson, Mariana Gelambi, Elsa Jos, Noelle G. Beckman
Summary: The study suggests that plants produce diverse secondary metabolites due to their beneficial interactions with other organisms. By focusing on fruits as hubs of interactions, the research demonstrates that fruits can harbor higher levels of phytochemical diversity compared to leaves. Integrating chemical ecology with fruit-frugivore interaction research can provide new insight into plant trait evolution.
Review
Ecology
Annika S. Nelson, Susan R. Whitehead
Summary: This review explores the significant role of plant secondary metabolites in seed dispersal and fruit defense, discussing their effects on animal-mediated seed dispersal and various trade-offs.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Gerald F. Schneider, Diego Salazar, Sherry B. Hildreth, Richard F. Helm, Susan R. Whitehead
Summary: The study found that fruits have higher chemical diversity compared to leaves, with fruits containing more unique compounds and having a higher total estimated chemical richness. Different plant organs, plant species, and the interaction between the two significantly influenced secondary metabolite composition. Variance in chemical composition across samples was higher for fruits than leaves.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Moria L. Robinson, Anthony L. Schilmiller, William C. Wetzel
Summary: This study examines the variability of traits within leaves in cultivated and wild alfalfa plants and finds that this variability has changed during domestication. It also shows that cultivated alfalfa has higher trait variability compared to its wild progenitors for multiple traits, which may help mitigate the loss of trait diversity in agricultural ecosystems.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kayleigh C. Hauri, Andrea E. Glassmire, Brendan Randall, Luke N. Zehr, William C. Wetzel
Summary: The variability in plant traits affects insect herbivores' foraging and survival. The presence of chemical diversity influences herbivore foraging behavior, while grouped cultivar mixtures reduce feeding damage and improve herbivore survival. The findings suggest the potential to spatially design cultivar mixtures at the movement scale of target organisms to promote sustainable agriculture.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Fernanda S. Valdovinos, Kayla R. S. Hale, Sabine Dritz, Paul R. Glaum, Kevin S. McCann, Sophia M. Simon, Elisa Thebault, William C. Wetzel, Kate L. Wootton, Justin D. Yeakel
Summary: Bioenergetic approaches have been influential in understanding community functioning and stability, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. However, these models face challenges in predicting plant-consumer interactions in terrestrial ecosystems where body mass is less predictive of these interactions.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Elizeth Cinto Mejia, William C. Wetzel
Summary: Climate change is intensifying extreme climate events (ECEs) and their impact on ecosystems. The ecological consequences of ECEs are likely to vary depending on when they occur, but there is a lack of research on this aspect. By studying physiological, population and community ecology, we can understand how the timing of ECEs affects their ecological impacts.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Olivia L. L. Cope, Luke N. N. Zehr, Anurag A. A. Agrawal, William C. C. Wetzel
Summary: Extreme heat events, which are increasing in frequency and intensity, can have varying consequences on insect communities depending on their timing. This study found that the timing of heat waves had multiyear, timing-specific effects on plant-insect communities, with early-season heat waves having more significant and persistent effects than late-season heat waves. The study also showed that heat waves following experimental herbivory had reduced consequences. Overall, the results highlight the complex and lasting ecological effects of extreme climate events, emphasizing the importance of considering timing.
Article
Entomology
Brendan A. Randall, Elizeth Cinto Mejia, Kayleigh C. Hauri, William C. Wetzel
Summary: Discretional cannibalism is common among lepidopteran herbivores and can be influenced by dietary nutrient composition. In this study, we found that unbalanced macronutrient ratios can promote cannibalism in the caterpillar Trichoplusia ni. Understanding how unbalanced macronutrient ratios drive cannibalism provides insights into the role of dietary quality in mediating plant-herbivore interactions.
ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)