Causes and consequences of resisting herbivory::
How long-lived plants avoid damage from diverse short-lived insect herbivores
Over a quarter of the leaf material tropical trees produce is consumed by herbivores. In response, plants have evolved a diversity of defense strategies that influence tritrophic interactions, coexistence and the immense biodiversity of the tropics.
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Plants and insect herbivores are the two most diverse groups of higher organisms, and understanding their interactions is key to understanding the richness of tropical forests. Herbivore pressures are intense in the tropics, and in response, plants have evolved an amazing diversity of defense strategies that involve: i) secondary metabolites; ii) foliar nutrients; iii) leaf toughness; iv) trichomes and other physical leaf traits; v) leaf phenology; and vi) a reliance on predators. So, despite its appearance, a tropical rainforest is not a salad bowl to herbivores!
In-depth, long-term research in a complex study system has allowed Dr. Lissy Coley and colleagues to decipher many components of plant defenses and plant-herbivore interactions more broadly. Focusing on Inga, a hyper-speciose Legume genus of canopy trees, they have carefully documented patterns of herbivory, diverse plant defense strategies, and elucidated evolutionary processes that promote tropical diversity. They have shown that rates of herbivory are high, that chemical, physical, and biotic defenses are all critical to survival, and that herbivores have resulted in a surprising diversity of defenses among closely related species. Moreover, their work has demonstrated that despite the rapid diversification of defenses and extreme levels of herbivore specialization, herbivores are forced to constantly evolve to utilize their host plants. The body of work that Lissy and her team have produced (summarized in their 2018 paper that is the focus of this module) speaks to the value of long-term, collaborative research and has paved the way for new and exciting questions to be examined in the field of chemical ecology.
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