Chemodiversity as part of the plant trait space and economics spectrum

生物多样性的魅力被化学多样性的吸引力所吸引，化学多样性是植物表型的一个未被探索但重要的属性。在第一个资助期，我们推出了R包chemodiv，以量化代谢物混合物的化学多样性。这种统计管道使研究人员不仅可以量化化学多样性的丰富性和均匀性成分，还可以量化差异成分。考虑到生物化学差异提供了一个更完整的理解化学多样性的生态和进化的重要性。因此，RU的几个项目使用或将使用我们的R包chemodiv来分析他们的数据。此外，我们还撰写了一篇综述文章，讨论了与化学多样性相关的一些主题，包括其统计量化信息，其在文献中的使用以及未来的方向。作为这项工作的一个核心组成部分，我们提供了一个决策树，以确定哪些化学多样性指数应用于测试在不同的生物背景下的各种假设。重要的是，RU的所有成员都贡献了关于化学多样性不同方面作用的想法和观点，这反映在手稿中。第二个资助期的主要目标是1）了解植物化学多样性的全球分布以及影响它的生物和非生物因素，这将作为经验工作项目（P1-P7）的重要参考。这种全球性的分析将有助于得出有关植物应对环境压力的策略的结论。2)P10还将提供一个框架，通过将化学多样性作为植物经济学谱的一个额外维度，将化学多样性与植物策略和功能联系起来。这一分析将揭示化学多样性在植物的表型和功能以及生态策略中是互补的还是冗余的。这个框架将阐明化学表型的生态学和进化中的权衡和限制。3)此外，通过使用P1-P7的数据，以及化学多样性可塑性实验（COR项目）的植物化学响应干旱和草食动物，种内变异的化学多样性将映射到植物经济谱，以测试是否响应是物种和/或胁迫特异性。同样地，在P9中模拟的虚拟植物的种内变异性可以被映射到性状空间上，以探索它们与“真实的”植物以及在多物种背景下的反应。

The fascination for biodiversity is paralleled by the appeal of chemodiversity, which is an underexplored but important property of the plants’ phenotypes. In the first funding period, we have introduced the R package chemodiv to quantify chemodiversity of mixtures of metabolites. This statistical pipeline allows researchers not only to quantify the richness and evenness component of chemodiversity, but also the disparity component. Considering biochemical disparity provides a more complete understanding of the ecological and evolutionary importance of chemodiversity. Accordingly, several projects of the RU used or will use our R package chemodiv to analyse their data. Additionally, we worked on a review article that addresses a number of topics related to chemodiversity, including information on its statistical quantification, its use in the literature, as well as future directions. As a central component of this work, we are providing a decision tree to determine which chemodiversity indices should be used to test various hypotheses in different biological contexts. Importantly, all members of the RU contributed ideas and perspectives about the role of different aspects of chemodiversity, which is reflected in the manuscript. The major goals of the second funding period are 1) to understand the global distribution of plant chemodiversity as well as the biotic and abiotic factors influencing it, which will serve as an important reference for the empirically working projects (P1-P7). This global analysis will allow conclusions about plant strategies in coping with environmental stresses. 2) P10 will also provide a framework to relate chemodiversity to plant strategies and functions by adding chemodiversity as an additional dimension of the plant economics spectrum. This analysis will reveal whether chemodiversity represents a complementary or redundant part in the plants’ phenotypes and functions and thus their ecological strategy. This framework will elucidate trade-offs and constrains in the ecology and evolution of the chemical phenotype. 3) Furthermore, by using the data of P1-P7 as well as the chemodiversity-plasticity experiment (COR project) on phytochemical responses to drought and herbivory, intraspecific variability in chemodiversity will be mapped onto the plant economics spectrum to test whether responses are species- and/or stressor-specific. Likewise, the intraspecific variability of virtual plants as simulated in P9 can be mapped onto the trait space to explore their responses in relation to “real” plants and in a multi-species context.