A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Herbivory selects for tolerance and constitutive defence across stages of community succession
Authors: Kalske Aino, Kessler André
Publisher: ROYAL SOC
Publication year: 2023
Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Journal name in source: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Journal acronym: P ROY SOC B-BIOL SCI
Article number: 20222458
Volume: 290
Issue: 1993
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 0962-8452
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2458
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2458
Abstract
Plants defend themselves from herbivory by either reducing damage (resistance) or minimizing its negative fitness effects with compensatory growth (tolerance). Herbivore pressure can fluctuate from year to year in an early secondary successional community, which can create temporal variation in selection for defence traits. We manipulated insect herbivory and successional age of the community as agents of natural selection in replicated common gardens with the perennial herb Solidago altissima. In these genotypic selection experiments, herbivory consistently selected for better defended plants in both successional communities. Herbivore suppression increased plant survival and the probability of flowering only in mid-succession. Despite these substantial differences in the effects of herbivory between early and mid-succession, the selection on defence traits did not change. Succession affected selection only on aboveground biomass, with positive selection in early but not mid-succession, suggesting an important role of competition in the selective environment. These results demonstrate that changes in the community that affect key life-history traits in an individual species can occur over very short timescales in a dynamic secondary successional environment. The resulting community context-driven variation in natural selection may be an important, yet overlooked, contributor to adaptive mosaics across populations.
Plants defend themselves from herbivory by either reducing damage (resistance) or minimizing its negative fitness effects with compensatory growth (tolerance). Herbivore pressure can fluctuate from year to year in an early secondary successional community, which can create temporal variation in selection for defence traits. We manipulated insect herbivory and successional age of the community as agents of natural selection in replicated common gardens with the perennial herb Solidago altissima. In these genotypic selection experiments, herbivory consistently selected for better defended plants in both successional communities. Herbivore suppression increased plant survival and the probability of flowering only in mid-succession. Despite these substantial differences in the effects of herbivory between early and mid-succession, the selection on defence traits did not change. Succession affected selection only on aboveground biomass, with positive selection in early but not mid-succession, suggesting an important role of competition in the selective environment. These results demonstrate that changes in the community that affect key life-history traits in an individual species can occur over very short timescales in a dynamic secondary successional environment. The resulting community context-driven variation in natural selection may be an important, yet overlooked, contributor to adaptive mosaics across populations.
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