Variability in seed salinity tolerance in an island coastal community.

Background And Aims: Islands, with their long coastlines and increased vulnerability to sea level rise, offer compelling opportunities to investigate the salinity tolerance of coastal plants. Seeds are generally more vulnerable than other plant stages to increased stressors. The aim of this study was to characterize salinity tolerance during germination across a diverse pool of 21 species from 14 plant families found in coastal communities throughout the Hawaiian Islands in order to increase our general understanding of coastal plant ecology for conservation and restoration.

Intraspecific trait variation and reversals of trait strategies across key climate gradients in native Hawaiian plants and non-native invaders.

Background And Aims: Displacement of native plant species by non-native invaders may result from differences in their carbon economy, yet little is known regarding how variation in leaf traits influences native-invader dynamics across climate gradients. In Hawaii, one of the most heavily invaded biodiversity hotspots in the world, strong spatial variation in climate results from the complex topography, which underlies variation in traits that probably drives shifts in species interactions.

Methods: Using one of the most comprehensive trait data sets for Hawaii to date (91 species and four islands), we determined the extent and sources of variation (climate, species and species origin) in leaf traits, and used mixed models to examine differences between natives and non-native invasives.

Developmental constraints and resource environment shape early emergence and investment in spines in saplings.

Background And Aims: Herbivory by large mammals imposes a critical recruitment bottleneck on plants in many systems. Spines defend plants against large herbivores, and how early they emerge in saplings may be one of the strongest predictors of sapling survival in herbivore-rich environments. Yet little effort has been directed at understanding the variability in spine emergence across saplings.

Dissecting macroecological and macroevolutionary patterns of forest biodiversity across the Hawaiian archipelago.

Biodiversity patterns emerge as a consequence of evolutionary and ecological processes. Their relative importance is frequently tested on model ecosystems such as oceanic islands that vary in both. However, the coarse-scale data typically used in biogeographic studies have limited inferential power to separate the effects of historical biogeographic factors (e.

Ontogenetic variation in salinity tolerance and ecophysiology of coastal dune plants.

Background And Aims: Global climate change includes shifts in temperature and precipitation, increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and sea level rise, which will drastically impact coastal ecosystems. The aim of this study is to quantify salinity tolerance and to identify physiological mechanisms underlying tolerance across wholeplant ontogeny in two widespread native coastal plant species in Hawai'i, Jacquemontia sandwicensis (Convolvulaceae) and Sida fallax (Malvaceae).

Methods: At the seed, seedling, juvenile and mature ontogenetic stages, plants were exposed to high salinity watering treatments.

OpenNahele: the open Hawaiian forest plot database.

Background: This data paper provides a description of OpenNahele, the open Hawaiian forest plot database. OpenNahele includes 530 forest plots across the Hawaiian archipelago containing 43,590 individuals of 185 native and alien tree, shrub and tree fern species across six islands. We include estimates of maximum plant size (D95 and D) for 58 woody plant species, a key functional trait associated with dispersal distance and competition for light.

Risk of herbivore attack and heritability of ontogenetic trajectories in plant defense.

Ontogeny has been identified as a main source of variation in the expression of plant phenotypes. However, there is limited information on the mechanisms behind the evolution of ontogenetic trajectories in plant defense. We explored if risk of attack, herbivore damage, heritability, and phenotypic plasticity can promote or constrain the evolutionary potential of ontogenetic trajectories in three defensive traits.

Pre-damage biomass allocation and not invasiveness predicts tolerance to damage in seedlings of woody species in Hawaii.

Plant-herbivore interactions have been predicted to play a fundamental role in plant invasions, although support for this assertion from previous research is mixed. While plants may escape from specialist herbivores in their introduced ranges, herbivory from generalists is common. Tolerance traits may allow non-native plants to mitigate the negative consequences of generalist herbivory that they cannot avoid in their introduced range.

Future directions in the ontogeny of plant defence: understanding the evolutionary causes and consequences.

Plant defence often varies by orders of magnitude as plants develop from the seedling to juvenile to mature and senescent stages. Ontogenetic trajectories can involve switches among defence traits, leading to complex shifting phenotypes across plant lifetimes. While considerable research has characterised ontogenetic trajectories for now hundreds of plant species, we still lack a clear understanding of the molecular, ecological and evolutionary factors driving these patterns.

Low tolerance to simulated herbivory in Hawaiian seedlings despite induced changes in photosynthesis and biomass allocation.

Background And Aims: Seedling herbivory is an important factor underlying plant community diversity and structure. While considerable research has characterized seedling defence in terms of resistance, very little is known about seedling tolerance of herbivory. Moreover, few studies have attempted to identify mechanisms of tolerance across a range of plant species.

Prickly poppies can get pricklier: ontogenetic patterns in the induction of physical defense traits.

Plant ontogeny is a common source of variation in defense and herbivory. Yet, few studies have investigated how the induction of physical defense traits changes across plant ontogeny. Physical defense traits are costly to produce, and thus, it was predicted that induction as a cost-saving strategy would be particularly favorable for seedlings, leading to ontogenetic declines in the inducibility of these traits.

Prickles, latex, and tolerance in the endemic Hawaiian prickly poppy (Argemone glauca): variation between populations, across ontogeny, and in response to abiotic factors.

Covariance among plant defense traits is predicted to occur both within and among plant species, potentially leading to characteristic defense syndromes. I examined patterns of variation in prickle density, latex exudation, and tolerance in order to assess whether traits varied between populations, across plant ontogeny, and as phenotypic plasticity in response to water and light limitation and physical damage using the endemic Hawaiian prickly poppy, Argemone glauca, as a model system. Plants produced copious latex, had extremely variable prickle densities, and were generally tolerant of 50% defoliation.

Seedling-herbivore interactions: insights into plant defence and regeneration patterns.

Background: Herbivores have the power to shape plant evolutionary trajectories, influence the structure and function of vegetation, devastate entire crops, or halt the spread of invasive weeds, and as a consequence, research into plant-herbivore interactions is pivotal to our understanding of plant ecology and evolution. However, the causes and consequences of seedling herbivory have received remarkably little attention, despite the fact that plants tend to be most susceptible to herbivory during establishment, and this damage can alter community composition and structure.

Scope: In this Viewpoint article we review why herbivory during early plant ontogeny is important and in so doing introduce an Annals of Botany Special Issue that draws together the latest work on the topic.

Ontogenetic patterns in the mechanisms of tolerance to herbivory in Plantago.

Background And Aims: Herbivory and plant defence differ markedly among seedlings and juvenile and mature plants in most species. While ontogenetic patterns of chemical resistance have been the focus of much research, comparatively little is known about how tolerance to damage changes across ontogeny. Due to dramatic shifts in plant size, resource acquisition, stored reserves and growth, it was predicted that tolerance and related underlying mechanisms would differ among ontogenetic stages.

The ontogeny of plant defense and herbivory: characterizing general patterns using meta-analysis.

Defense against herbivores often changes dramatically as plants develop. Hypotheses based on allocation theory and herbivore selection patterns predict that defense should increase or decrease, respectively, across ontogeny, and previous research partly supports both predictions. Thus, it remains unclear which pattern is more common and what factors contribute to variability among studies.

Early ontogenetic patterns in chemical defense in Plantago (Plantaginaceae): genetic variation and trade-offs.

Predictions based on the plant age and growth-differentiation balance hypotheses of defense were tested in two congeneric species, Plantago lanceolata and P. major, by quantifying iridoid glycosides, defensive chemicals, in seeds and leaves during the first 6 wk of growth. Concentrations decreased from the seed to 2-wk-old seedling stage in P.

Neighbor species differentially alter resistance phenotypes in Plantago.

In this study, we investigated how neighbors (i.e., competitors) altered resistance phenotypes, namely plant size and levels of secondary compounds (iridoid glycosides), of individual plants and specifically tested whether neighbor identity mattered.

Long-term dynamics of the distribution of the invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, and native ant taxa in northern California.

Invasive species, where successful, can devastate native communities. We studied the dynamics of the invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, for 7 years in Jasper Ridge, a biological preserve in northern California. We monitored the distributions at the hectare scale of native ant taxa and L.