Ziaja Dominik, Sasidharan Rohit, Jakobs Ruth, Eilers Elisabeth J, Müller Caroline
Department of Chemical Ecology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.
CTL-GmbH, Chemisch-Technologisches Laboratorium, Krackser Straße 12, 33659, Bielefeld, Germany.
Oecologia. 2025 Jul 14;207(8):134. doi: 10.1007/s00442-025-05767-4.
Plants have to allocate resources into their growth and reproduction but also in phytochemicals used in interactions with their environment. Some species display an extraordinarily high diversity of such phytochemicals, called chemodiversity. In stands with different neighbors, plot chemodiversity may be even higher and provide associational resistance. Little is known about trade-offs in investment into growth and reproduction versus chemodiversity in plant individuals growing in chemically different neighborhoods.We investigated such trade-offs using the perennial Tanacetum vulgare, which shows differences in leaf terpenoid composition, forming distinct chemotypes. We planted plots consisting of five plants of one of five chemotypes (homogenous neighborhoods) and plots consisting of five different chemotypes (heterogenous) in a field. Plants within each block were offspring from different mother plants (here called maternal genotypes). Over 2 years, plant performance traits related to growth and reproduction were recorded and the leaf terpenoid profiles were measured once. Depending on the chemotype, plants had significantly different chances of flowering. Plants in heterogenous plots produced a higher maximum number of flower heads than those in homogenous plots. The maternal genotype explained some of the variance in growth- and reproduction-related traits. No significant correlations were found between the terpenoid functional Hill diversity (FHD) or its components (terpenoid richness, evenness, and structural disparity) and growth- and reproduction-related plant traits. Our results suggest that both the terpenoid chemotype of an individual and the chemodiversity of its neighborhood can impact reproduction-related traits, possibly driven by interactions of the individual with the environment and different resource allocation.
植物必须将资源分配到生长和繁殖中，同时还要分配到用于与环境相互作用的植物化学物质中。一些物种表现出此类植物化学物质的极高多样性，即化学多样性。在与不同邻居共处的群落中，群落化学多样性可能更高，并提供联合抗性。对于生长在化学性质不同的邻域中的植物个体，在生长和繁殖投资与化学多样性之间的权衡知之甚少。我们使用多年生的普通菊蒿来研究这种权衡，该植物在叶片萜类成分上存在差异，形成了不同的化学型。我们在田间种植了由五种化学型之一的五株植物组成的小区（同质邻域）以及由五种不同化学型组成的小区（异质）。每个区组内的植物是不同母本植物的后代（此处称为母本基因型）。在两年时间里，记录了与生长和繁殖相关的植物性能性状，并测量了一次叶片萜类谱。根据化学型的不同，植物开花的机会有显著差异。异质小区中的植物产生的最大头状花序数量比同质小区中的植物多。母本基因型解释了与生长和繁殖相关性状的部分变异。在萜类功能希尔多样性（FHD）或其组成部分（萜类丰富度、均匀度和结构差异）与生长和繁殖相关的植物性状之间未发现显著相关性。我们的结果表明，个体的萜类化学型及其邻域的化学多样性都可能影响与繁殖相关的性状，这可能是由个体与环境的相互作用以及不同的资源分配所驱动的。
