Herbivory is a major factor shaping the diversity and abundance of plant communities. Because plants are sessile, the proximity and identity of their neighbors influence their apparency to herbivores and affects competitive interactions. Thus, competition and herbivore resistance are interacting factors in the co-evolutionary arms race between herbivores and plants. Moreover, by perceiving chemical signals from damaged neighbors, plants can induce resistance without actually receiving damage, emphasizing that plant-herbivore interactions are played out on a scale much larger than the individual plant. Understanding the mechanisms of and constraints on this so-called ?plant-to-plant signaling? will help predict how the genotypic diversity of a plant?s neighborhood influences the availability and reliability of information from its neighbors, and how plant-to-plant signaling influences plant-herbivore coevolution. The proposed research will test for genetic variation in and specificity of plant-to-plant signaling, investigate the degree of within- and between-clone signaling, and assess the potential for natural selection on traits associated with the emission and perception of signals from neighboring plants. From an ecological perspective, these experiments will inform how the genetic diversity of a plant?s neighborhood may affect the availability of information within the plant population. From an evolutionary perspective, they will reveal the potential for signal emission and perception to evolve by natural selection.
The project?s broader impacts involve the professional development of one graduate and two undergraduate students, numerous public outreach events geared towards encouraging appreciation of plant and insect ecology in K-12 students, and the peer-reviewed publication of results.
