Disseration Research: The Mechanisms and Consequences of Herbivore-induced Volatile Emissions for Neighboring Plants

草食性是影响植物群落多样性和丰富度的主要因素。由于植物是无柄的，它们邻居的接近度和身份会影响它们对食草动物的外观并影响竞争性相互作用。因此，竞争和食草动物抗性是食草动物和植物之间共同进化军备竞赛中的相互作用因素。此外，通过感知来自受损邻居的化学信号，植物可以在不实际受到损害的情况下诱导抵抗力，这强调了植物与食草动物相互作用的规模远大于单个植物。了解这种所谓的“植物间信号传导”的机制和限制因素？将有助于预测植物邻近植物的基因型多样性如何影响其邻近植物信息的可用性和可靠性，以及植物间信号传导如何影响植物与草食动物的协同进化。拟议的研究将测试植物间信号传导的遗传变异和特异性，研究克隆内和克隆间信号传导的程度，并评估与邻近植物信号发射和感知相关性状的自然选择潜力。从生态角度来看，这些实验将揭示植物邻近区域的遗传多样性如何影响植物种群内信息的可用性。从进化的角度来看，它们将揭示信号发射和感知通过自然选择进化的潜力。该项目的更广泛影响包括一名研究生和两名本科生的专业发展、旨在鼓励 K-12 学生了解植物和昆虫生态学的众多公共外展活动，以及经过同行评审的结果发布。

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.