Understanding intraspecific variation in plant defense across resource gradients

了解跨资源梯度植物防御的种内变异

基本信息

批准号：
1901552
负责人：
John Maron
金额：
$ 73.59万
依托单位：
University of Montana
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-07-01 至 2024-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1901552&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Understanding intraspecific variation plant defense

项目摘要

Plants defend themselves from hungry animals by putting poisons in their leaves and thorns on their branches. There are many other ways they protect themselves, too. Ecologists have wondered for a long time why different species of plants adopt very different strategies of protection. Why wouldn't there be one best way? Even different individuals of the same species defend themselves differently. Thus, a major challenge in ecology is to figure out the causes and consequences of differences in plant defense. One idea is that plants in places where they can't grow fast, can invest more energy in defense. In contrast, plants in places with lots of water and nutrients can grow and reproduce quickly -- life is good, so they don't need as much defense. Scientists with this project will test that idea. They will look at how different individuals of the same species may change their strategies of defense when grown in stressful areas and areas of plenty. They will test how well the defenses work by measuring how tasty the plants are to insects. Results may reveal new strategies for protection of farm crops from insect pests. The researchers will involve high school and college students in the project, training them how to do science. Also, the public will be engaged through various natural history and conservation programs.This project involves reciprocally transplanting six co-occurring native grassland plant species from populations replicated within eight high- and eight low-resource environments into common gardens located in each region. Resources (rainfall) will also be manipulated in a common garden located in the low-resource region to evaluate the extent to which responses of plant growth and defense to abiotic factors are plastic. Herbivore abundance and the impacts of herbivores on plant fitness (accessed via insect-reduction experiments) will be quantified within populations containing the focal species across the two resource regions. Collectively, these experiments will evaluate how the resource environment influences: 1) growth and defense (both tolerance and resistance) evolution and plasticity within species; 2) positive growth and defense correlations across populations, and 3) insect herbivore abundance and the impacts of herbivory on plant fitness. Ultimately, the multispecies approach employed will help to reconcile the different growth-defense relationships often observed among vs. within species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

植物通过将毒物放在树枝上的叶子和荆棘中来捍卫自己免受饥饿的动物的伤害。他们也有许多保护自己的方法。生态学家很长一段时间以来一直想知道为什么不同种类的植物采用非常不同的保护策略。为什么没有最好的方法？即使是同一物种的不同个体也以不同的方式捍卫自己。因此，生态学的主要挑战是找出植物防御差异的原因和后果。一个想法是，在无法快速生长的地方的植物可以在防御上投入更多的能量。相比之下，有大量水和养分的地方的植物可以迅速生长和繁殖 - 生活是美好的，因此不需要太多的防御。这个项目的科学家将测试这个想法。他们将研究同一物种的不同个体在压力大的地区和足够的领域成长时如何改变其防御策略。他们将通过测量植物对昆虫的美味来测试防御能力的效果。结果可能揭示了保护农作物免受害虫的新策略。研究人员将参与该项目的高中和大学生，培训他们如何进行科学。此外，公众将通过各种自然历史和保护计划参与。该项目涉及从在八个高和八个低资源环境中复制的种群中互惠移植的六种共同存在的本地草地植物物种，分为每个地区的共同花园。资源（降雨）也将在位于低资源地区的一个共同花园中操纵，以评估植物生长和防御对非生物因素的反应的程度。食草动物的丰度和食草动物对植物健身的影响（通过昆虫还原实验访问）将在两个资源区域中包含焦点物种的种群中进行量化。总的来说，这些实验将评估资源环境的影响：1）物种内的生长和防御（耐受性和抗性）进化和可塑性； 2）种群之间的正增长和防御相关性，以及3）食草动物的丰度以及食草动物对植物健身的影响。最终，采用的多种方法将有助于调和在物种之间经常观察到的不同生长防御关系。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的评估标准来通过评估来支持的。