Relationship between chemical profiles of plants, their herbivore biodiversity and land-use

对特定植物物种或植物群落的化学多样性（即代谢物的定量和定性组成）与其周围生物多样性或土地利用强度之间的关系了解甚少。在第一个资助期内，我们调查了模式植物物种车前草的化学多样性，发现其化学多样性在某些情况下与上述环境因素相关。为了能够评估化学变化的顺序，在新的提案中，将筛选5种植物（草本植物和禾本科植物）的化学多样性和其他重要的植物性状（光合潜能，菌根状态等）。在一种环境代谢指纹法中，将评估不同土地利用地块上的植物的化学成分，并在采用控制砍伐、草食或菌根化的不同处理后进行评估。因此，我们的目标是测量共同以及不同诱导的代谢变化，包括信号激素，比较在五个物种。通过调查这一范围内的化学多样性，我们的研究试图增加对这一重要生物多样性层的理解。数据采集的复杂性将增加对植物调控潜在机制的理解。

Very little is known about the relationships between the chemical diversity, i.e. the quantitative and qualitative composition of metabolites, of a given plant species or plant community and its surrounding biodiversity or the land-use intensity. Within the first funding period, we investigated the chemodiversity of the model plant species Plantago lanceolata and detected a high chemical variation which was in some instances correlated with the mentioned environmental factors. To be able to evaluate the order of chemical variation, five plant species (herbs and grasses) will be screened for their chemical diversity and other important plant traits (photosynthetic potential, mycorrhizal status etc.) in the new proposal. In an environmental metabolic fingerprinting approach, chemical composition will be assessed in plants on plots of different land-use and after different treatments using controlled cutting, herbivory or mycorrhization. Thereby, we aim to measure common as well as differently induced metabolic changes, including signalling hormones, comparatively in the five species. By investigating the chemical diversity at this range, our study attempts to increase the understanding of this important layer of biodiversity. The complexity of data acquisition will add to the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of plant regulation.