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

食草动物是形成植物群落多样性和丰富度的主要因素。因为植物是固着的，它们邻居的接近和身份会影响它们对食草动物的表现，并影响竞争相互作用。因此，竞争和草食动物的阻力是相互作用的因素，在共同进化的军备竞赛之间的草食动物和植物。此外，通过感知来自受损邻居的化学信号，植物可以在实际上不受到损害的情况下诱导抗性，强调植物与食草动物的相互作用比单个植物大得多。了解这个所谓的机制和限制？植物间的信号传递将有助于预测植物的基因型多样性的邻居影响的可用性和可靠性的信息，从它的邻居，以及植物到植物的信号如何影响植物草食动物的共同进化。拟议的研究将测试植物间信号传导的遗传变异和特异性，调查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的性状的自然选择潜力。从生态学的角度来看，这些实验将告知如何遗传多样性的植物？的邻域可能会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。项目？的更广泛的影响涉及一个研究生和两个本科生的专业发展，众多的公共宣传活动，旨在鼓励欣赏植物和昆虫生态学的K-12学生，以及同行评审的结果出版物。

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.