Müller Caroline, Junker Robert R
Chemical Ecology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.
Evolutionary Ecology of Plants, Department of Biology, University of Marburg, 35043, Marburg, Germany.
New Phytol. 2022 May;234(4):1168-1174. doi: 10.1111/nph.18075. Epub 2022 Mar 23.
Niche theory considering the traits of species and individuals provides a powerful tool to integrate ecology and evolution of species. In plant ecology, morphological and physiological traits are commonly considered as niche dimensions, whereas phytochemical traits are mostly neglected in this context despite their pivotal functions in plant responses to their environment and in mediating interactions. The diversity of plant phytochemicals can thus mediate three key processes: niche choice, conformance and construction. Here, we integrate frameworks from niche theory with chemical ecology and argue that plants use their individual-specific diversity in phytochemicals (chemodiversity) for different niche realization processes. Our concept has important implications for ecosystem processes and stability and increases the predictive ability of chemical ecology.
考虑物种和个体特征的生态位理论为整合物种的生态学和进化提供了一个强大的工具。在植物生态学中，形态和生理特征通常被视为生态位维度，而在此背景下，尽管植物化学特征在植物对环境的响应以及介导相互作用中起着关键作用，但大多被忽视。因此，植物化学物质的多样性可以介导三个关键过程：生态位选择、顺应和构建。在这里，我们将生态位理论框架与化学生态学相结合，并认为植物利用其植物化学物质中的个体特异性多样性（化学多样性）来实现不同的生态位过程。我们的概念对生态系统过程和稳定性具有重要意义，并提高了化学生态学的预测能力。
