Print PageSeveral studies have shown that plant genetic variation can explain variation in the plants’ associated arthropod community. Mechanistically, plant genetics influence plant traits, which then attract or repel surrounding arthropods. We hypothesize that evolution of genetically based plant traits changes the community of arthropods that the plants support. We use a common garden design to examine six populations of S. velutina, three growing in the presence of ungulates and three growing in the absence of ungulates. We hypothesize that 1) plant traits are heritable, 2) plants have evolved different traits in the presence of ungulates and 3) plants originating from sites with ungulates support a significantly different arthropod community compared to plants originated from non-ungulate sites.
Results/Conclusions
We show that ungulate-induced plant evolution changes how plants support their associated arthropod community. Plants originating from ungulate sites have different traits and support a significantly different arthropod community than plants originating from sites without ungulates. These results suggest that natural selection acting on and causing evolution of plant traits can change the community that the plant supports.
