Dissertation Research: Ecological Tradeoffs Between Herbivore Resistance and Pollinator Attraction in Plants: A Test Using Castilleja Hemiparasites

影响食草性的植物性状通常在研究时不考虑对传粉的影响，反之亦然。这可能导致对这些性状选择的不完全理解。两种Castilleja半寄生虫可以从Lupinus寄主植物中获取生物碱，它们将被用来测试对食草动物的化学防御是否也会阻止传粉昆虫。Castilleja物种将与低生物碱或高生物碱的同种羽扇豆品种一起种植，以测试生物碱吸收对草食和授粉的影响。初步数据支持这样的假设，即这是食草动物防御和传粉者吸引之间的生态权衡。如果存在这样的权衡，这就意味着限制化学防御发展的新可能性。本研究整合了整个植物水平的化学生态学，推进了寄生植物生态学的基础知识，并开发了一种新的方法来评估新的防御化学物质在体内的后果。植物与动物的相互作用可能受到多重选择压力的限制，这一概念在自然和农业系统中都有广泛的应用。

9800885 Strauss Plant traits that affect herbivory are usually studies without considering effects on pollination, or vice versa. This may result in an incomplete understanding of selection on these traits. Two species of Castilleja hemiparasites, which can obtain alkaloids from Lupinus host plants, will be used to test whether chemical defense against herbivores also deters pollinators. Castilleja species will be grown with either low-alkaloid or high-alkaloid varieties of conspecific lupines to test the consequences of alkaloid uptake on herbivory and pollination. Preliminary data support the hypothesis that these is an ecological tradeoff between herbivore defense and pollinator attraction. If such a tradeoff exists, it suggests new possibilities for constraints on the development of chemical defenses. The proposed research integrates chemical ecology at the whole plant level, advances basic knowledge of the ecology of parasitic plants, and develops a new methods to assess consequences of novel defensive chemicals in vivo. The concept that plant-animal interactions may be constrained by multiple selection pressures has broad applications in both natural and agricultural systems.