Host plant choice by marine herbivores: ecological, genetic and historical constraints

海洋食草动物对寄主植物的选择：生态、遗传和历史限制。了解决定食草动物选择植物的因素对于预测食草动物对植物的生态效应和食草动物对植物的适应性至关重要。本研究旨在探讨海洋食草动物寄主选择的进化是如何受到生态、遗传和历史因素的制约的。它将决定植物的空间安排如何改变寄主的利用，以及食草动物的进化变化是否受到食草动物性状之间遗传关系的限制。通过将这一理论扩展到新的生物和环境中，预测食草动物选择植物的重要进化假设的普遍性将得到检验。

Host plant choice by marine herbivores: ecological, genetic and historical constraints. Understanding the factors that determine plant choice by herbivores is crucial to predicting the ecological effects of herbivores on plants and herbivore adaptation to plants. This proposal aims to establish how evolution of host choice by a marine herbivore is constrained by ecological, genetic and historical factors. It will determine how the spatial arrangement of plants modifies host use, and whether evolutionary change by herbivores is constrained by genetic relationships among herbivore traits. The generality of important evolutionary hypotheses that predict plant choice by herbivores will be tested by extending such theory to new organisms and environments.