Ecology and Evolution of Young Leaf Defenses in Tropical Rainforest Legumes

植物和食草动物构成了地球生物多样性的大部分，它们在进化上的相互作用导致了一场军备竞赛，在这场竞赛中，植物的防御被食草动物的反适应所满足。在热带森林中，绝大多数草食是由以幼叶为食而不是以成熟叶为食的昆虫发生的，不同物种之间的危害存在巨大差异，但我们对这种差异的根本原因知之甚少。使用一种明确考虑相互作用的进化史的方法，该项目将检查热带豆科树木幼叶的化学防御，并将其与其他植物防御、昆虫食草动物对叶片的破坏以及食草动物的生活史特征相关联。方法包括植物化学分析、草食动物饲养试验以评估毒性、草食动物的田间测量、叶片展开的时间和草食动物的饮食广度。这个项目将提高我们对植物和草食动物之间的生态和进化相互作用的总体理解，并将提供关于鲜为人知的热带森林的数据。此外，研究中的植物具有商业价值(水果)，用于重新造林和肥沃土壤养分。

Plants and herbivores comprise the majority of the earth's biodiversity and their evolutionary interactions have resulted in an arms race in which plant defenses are met by counter adaptations on the part of herbivores. In tropical forests, the vast majority of herbivory occurs by insects feeding on young rather than mature leaves and there is enormous variation in damage among species, yet we know little of the underlying causes of this variation. Using an approach that explicitly considers the evolutionary history of the interaction, this project will examine the chemical defenses of young leaves of tropical legume trees, and correlate this with other plant defenses, with leaf damage by insect herbivores, and with herbivore life history traits. Methods include analyses of plant chemistry, feeding trials with herbivores to assess toxicity, and field measurement of herbivory, timing of leaf expansion, and diet breadth of herbivores. This project will improve our general understanding of the ecological and evolutionary interactions between plants and herbivores, and will provide data on poorly known tropical forests. In addition, the plants under study have commercial value (fruit), and are used for reforestation and for enriching soil nutrients.