Diverge or converge: do harsh abiotic condition restrict divergence of defences in alpine willows?
Plants employ a bewildering diversity of defences to withstand herbivory pressure and detrimental environmental conditions. Exploring the factors that drive the variability in plant defensive strategies is crucial for understanding plant evolution in face of herbivory and harsh environment. Within this project we aim at addressing the question: How the interplay between herbivory and environmental pressures form the evolution of plant chemical defences? To achieve this, we combine state of the art metabolomics and bioinformatics combined with field sampling of highland and lowland species of willows. The core of the project includes analysing macroevolutionary patterns in willow defences and comparing them between highland and lowland species. This project will show that changes along elevational gradients strongly affect the way how host-plant defences evolve, directing the prevalent macroevolutionary trends among related willow species (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Proposed elevational trends in plant defences. Higher biomass costs at high elevations drive an increase in plant defences and support defensive stragies and evolutionary trends alternative to the ones shown by lowland plants.
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- Volf M., Laitila J., Kim J., Sam L., Sam K., Isua B., Sisol M., Wardhaugh C. W., Vejmělka F., Miller S., Weiblen G., Salminen J.-P., Novotný V., Segar S. T. (2020) Compound specific trends of chemical defence in Ficus along an elavational gradient reflect a complex selective landscape. Journal of Chemical Ecology 46: 442-454. DOI: 10.1007/s10886-020-01173-7
- Sam K., Koane B., Sam L., Mrázová A., Segar S. T., Volf M., Moos M., Šimek P., Sisol M., Novotný V. (2020) Insect herbivory and herbivores of Ficus species along a rain forest elevational gradient on Papua New Guinea. Biotropica 52: 263-276. DOI: 10.1111/btp.12741