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Flores S, Forister ML, Sulbaran H, Díaz R, Dyer LA. Extreme drought disrupts plant phenology: Insights from 35 years of cloud forest data in Venezuela. Ecology 2023; 104:e4012. [PMID: 36851834 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 03/01/2023]
Abstract
The potential effects of climate change on plant reproductive phenology include asynchronies with pollinators and reductions in plant fitness, leading to extinction and loss of ecosystem function. In particular, plant phenology is sensitive to extreme weather events, which are occurring with increasing severity and frequency in recent decades and are linked to anthropogenic climate change and shifts in atmospheric circulation. For 15 plant species in a Venezuelan cloud forest, we documented dramatic changes in monthly flower and fruit community composition over a 35-year time series, from 1983 to 2017, and these changes were linked directly to higher temperatures, lower precipitation, and decreased soil water availability. The patterns documented here do not mirror trends in temperate zones but corroborate results from the Asian tropics. More intense droughts are predicted to occur in the region, which will cause dramatic changes in flower and fruit availability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saúl Flores
- Centro de Ecología, Laboratorio de Ecología de Suelos Ambiente y Agricultura del Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela
| | - Matthew L Forister
- Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology and Biology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA
| | - Hendrik Sulbaran
- Centro de Ecología, Laboratorio de Ecología de Suelos Ambiente y Agricultura del Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela
| | - Rodrigo Díaz
- Centro de Ecología, Laboratorio de Ecología de Suelos Ambiente y Agricultura del Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela
| | - Lee A Dyer
- Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology and Biology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA
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Campos‐Moreno DF, Dyer LA, Salcido D, Massad TJ, Pérez‐Lachaud G, Tepe EJ, Whitfield JB, Pozo C. Importance of interaction rewiring in determining spatial and temporal turnover of tritrophic (
Piper
‐caterpillar‐parasitoid) metanetworks in the Yucatán Península, México. Biotropica 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Diego F. Campos‐Moreno
- Departamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) Chetumal Quintana Roo México
| | - Lee A. Dyer
- EECB and Biology Department University of Nevada, Reno Reno NV USA
| | - Danielle Salcido
- EECB and Biology Department University of Nevada, Reno Reno NV USA
| | - Tara Joy Massad
- Department of Scientific Services Gorongosa National Park Sofala Mozambique
| | - Gabriela Pérez‐Lachaud
- Departamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) Chetumal Quintana Roo México
| | - Eric J. Tepe
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Cincinnati Cincinnati OH USA
| | | | - Carmen Pozo
- Departamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) Chetumal Quintana Roo México
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Wetzel WC, Whitehead SR. The many dimensions of phytochemical diversity: linking theory to practice. Ecol Lett 2019; 23:16-32. [PMID: 31724320 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 10/17/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Research on the ecological and evolutionary roles of phytochemicals has recently progressed from studying single compounds to examining chemical diversity itself. A key conceptual advance enabling this progression is the use of species diversity metrics for quantifying phytochemical diversity. In this perspective, we extend the theory developed for species diversity to further our understanding of what exactly phytochemical diversity is and how its many dimensions impact ecological and evolutionary processes. First, we discuss the major dimensions of phytochemical diversity - richness, evenness, functional diversity, and alpha, gamma and beta diversity. We describe their potential independent roles in biotic interactions and the practical challenges associated with their analysis. Second, we re-analyse the published and unpublished datasets to reveal that the phytochemical diversity experienced by an organism (or observed by a researcher) depends strongly on the scale of the interaction and the total amount of phytochemicals involved. We argue that we must account for these frames of reference to meaningfully understand diversity. Moving from a general notion of phytochemical diversity as a single measure to a precise definition of its multidimensional and multiscale nature yields overlooked testable predictions that will facilitate novel insights about the evolutionary ecology of plant biotic interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- William C Wetzel
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.,Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
| | - Susan R Whitehead
- Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA
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Richards LA, Oliveira C, Dyer LA, Rumbaugh A, Urbano-Muñoz F, Wallace IS, Dodson CD, Jeffrey CS. Shedding Light on Chemically Mediated Tri-Trophic Interactions: A 1H-NMR Network Approach to Identify Compound Structural Features and Associated Biological Activity. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2018; 9:1155. [PMID: 30174676 PMCID: PMC6107749 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2018] [Accepted: 07/20/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Diverse mixtures of plant natural products play an important role in plant-herbivore-parasitoid interactions. In the pursuit of understanding these chemically-mediated interactions, we are often faced with the challenge of determining ecologically and biologically relevant compounds present in complex phytochemical mixtures. Using a network-based approach, we analyzed binned 1H-NMR data from 196 prepared mixtures of commonly studied secondary metabolites including alkaloids, amides, terpenes, iridoid glycosides, saponins, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids and phytosterols. The mixtures included multiple dimensions of chemical diversity, including molecular complexity, mixture complexity and differences in relative compound concentrations. This approach yielded modules of co-occurring chemical shifts that were correlated with specific compounds or common structural features shared across compounds. This approach was then applied to crude phytochemical extracts of 31 species in the phytochemically diverse tropical plant genus Piper (Piperaceae). Combining the activity of crude plant extracts in an array of bioassays with our 1H-NMR network approach, we identified a potential prenylated benzoic acid from these mixtures that exhibits antifungal properties and identified small structural differences that were potentially responsible for antifungal activity. In an intraspecific analysis of individual Piper kelleyi plants, we also found ontogenetic differences in chemistry that may affect natural plant enemies. In sum, this approach allowed us to characterize mixtures as useful network modules and to combine chemical and ecological datasets to identify biologically important compounds from crude extracts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lora A. Richards
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
| | - Celso Oliveira
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
| | - Lee A. Dyer
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
| | - Arran Rumbaugh
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
| | - Federico Urbano-Muñoz
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
| | - Ian S. Wallace
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
| | - Craig D. Dodson
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States
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Smilanich AM, Fincher RM, Dyer LA. Does plant apparency matter? Thirty years of data provide limited support but reveal clear patterns of the effects of plant chemistry on herbivores. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2016; 210:1044-1057. [PMID: 26889654 DOI: 10.1111/nph.13875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2015] [Accepted: 12/23/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
According to the plant-apparency hypothesis, apparent plants allocate resources to quantitative defenses that negatively affect generalist and specialist herbivores, while unapparent plants invest more in qualitative defenses that negatively affect nonadapted generalists. Although this hypothesis has provided a useful framework for understanding the evolution of plant chemical defense, there are many inconsistencies surrounding associated predictions, and it has been heavily criticized and deemed obsolete. We used a hierarchical Bayesian meta-analysis model to test whether defenses from apparent and unapparent plants differ in their effects on herbivores. We collected a total of 225 effect sizes from 158 published papers in which the effects of plant chemistry on herbivore performance were reported. As predicted by the plant-apparency hypothesis, we found a prevalence of quantitative defenses in woody plants and qualitative defenses in herbaceous plants. However, the detrimental impacts of qualitative defenses were more effective against specialists than generalists, and the effects of chemical defenses did not significantly differ between specialists and generalists for woody or herbaceous plants. A striking pattern that emerged from our data was a pervasiveness of beneficial effects of secondary metabolites on herbivore performance, especially generalists. This pattern provides evidence that herbivores are evolving effective counteradaptations to putative plant defenses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela M Smilanich
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - R Malia Fincher
- Department of Biology, Samford University, 800 Lakeshore Dr., Birmingham, AL, 35229, USA
| | - Lee A Dyer
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
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Richards LA, Dyer LA, Forister ML, Smilanich AM, Dodson CD, Leonard MD, Jeffrey CS. Phytochemical diversity drives plant-insect community diversity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2015; 112:10973-8. [PMID: 26283384 PMCID: PMC4568244 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504977112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
What are the ecological causes and consequences of variation in phytochemical diversity within and between plant taxa? Despite decades of natural products discovery by organic chemists and research by chemical ecologists, our understanding of phytochemically mediated ecological processes in natural communities has been restricted to studies of either broad classes of compounds or a small number of well-characterized molecules. Until now, no studies have assessed the ecological causes or consequences of rigorously quantified phytochemical diversity across taxa in natural systems. Consequently, hypotheses that attempt to explain variation in phytochemical diversity among plants remain largely untested. We use spectral data from crude plant extracts to characterize phytochemical diversity in a suite of co-occurring plants in the tropical genus Piper (Piperaceae). In combination with 20 years of data focused on Piper-associated insects, we find that phytochemical diversity has a direct and positive effect on the diversity of herbivores but also reduces overall herbivore damage. Elevated chemical diversity is associated with more specialized assemblages of herbivores, and the cascading positive effect of phytochemistry on herbivore enemies is stronger as herbivore diet breadth narrows. These results are consistent with traditional hypotheses that predict positive associations between plant chemical diversity, insect herbivore diversity, and trophic specialization. It is clear from these results that high phytochemical diversity not only enhances the diversity of plant-associated insects but also contributes to the ecological predominance of specialized insect herbivores.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lee A Dyer
- Biology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557
| | | | | | - Craig D Dodson
- Chemistry Department, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557
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