Relative effects of genetic variation sensu lato and sexual dimorphism on plant traits and associated arthropod communities.

Intraspecific plant trait variation can have cascading effects on plant-associated biotic communities. Sexual dimorphism is an important axis of genetic variation in dioecious plants, but the strength of such effects and the underlying mechanisms relative to genetic variation are unknown. We established a common garden with 39 genotypes of Baccharis salicifolia sampled from a single population that included male and female genotypes and measured plant traits and quantified associated arthropod communities. Genetic variation sensu lato (genotypic variation) had strong effects on most plant traits (flower number, relative growth rate, specific leaf area, percent water content, carbon-nitrogen ratio, monoterpene but not sesquiterpene concentrations) and on herbivore and predator density, and on arthropod community composition (relative abundance of 14 orders). In contrast, sexual dimorphism had weaker effects on only a few plant traits (flower number and relative growth rate), on predator density, and on arthropod community composition, but had no effect on herbivore density. Variation in flower number drove genetic variation sensu lato and sex dimorphism in predator density and arthropod community composition. There was unique genetic variation sensu lato in herbivore density (positively) associated with monoterpene concentration and in arthropod community composition associated with specific leaf area and carbon-nitrogen ratio. There was unique sexual dimorphism in arthropod community composition associated with plant relative growth rate. Together, these results demonstrate that genetic variation sensu lato and sexual dimorphism can shape plant-associated arthropod communities via both parallel and unique mechanisms, with greater overall effects of the former.

Genetically based latitudinal clines in Artemisia californica drive parallel clines in arthropod communities.

Intraspecific variation in plant traits has been clearly shown to drive the structure of associated arthropod communities at the spatial scale of individual plant populations. Nevertheless, it is largely unknown whether plant trait variation among populations drives landscape-scale variation in arthropod communities, and how the strength of such plant genetic effects compares to, and interacts with, those of environmental variation. We documented the structure of arthropod communities on Artemisia californica for two consecutive years in a common garden of plants sourced from five populations along a 5° latitudinal gradient and grown under precipitation treatments approximating the four-fold difference between the north and south range margins for this species. Previous study of plant traits from this garden documented clinal genetic variation, suggesting local adaptation to this environmental gradient, as well as effects of precipitation manipulation that were consistent among populations (i.e., no genotype-by-environment interaction). Within the common garden, arthropod density, evenness, and diversity increased clinally with population source latitude, and arthropod community composition (i.e., species relative abundance) showed a north-south divide. The 2.6-fold cline of northward increase in arthropod density in the common garden was mirrored by a 6.4-fold increase in arthropod density on wild plants sampled along the species range. In contrast to the strong influence of plant genotype, the precipitation manipulation only influenced arthropod community composition, and plant genetic effects on arthropods operated independently of precipitation regime (no genotype-by-environment interaction). Accordingly, we conclude that the strongest driver of landscape-level variation in arthropod communities in this foundational plant species is not variation in the abiotic environment itself, but rather variation in plant traits underlain by the evolutionary process of plant local adaptation.

Multi-trophic consequences of plant genetic variation in sex and growth.

There is growing evidence for the influence of plant intraspecific variation on associated multi-trophic communities, but the traits driving such effects are largely unknown. We conducted a field experiment with selected genetic lines of the dioecious shrub Baceharis salicifolia to investigate the effects of plant growth rate (two-fold variation) and gender (males vs. females of the same growth rate) on above- and belowground insect and fungal associates. We documented variation in associate density to test for effects occurring through plant-based habitat quality (controlling for effects of plant size) as well as variation in associate abundance to test for effects occurring through both habitat quality and abundance (including effects of plant size). Whereas the dietary specialist aphid Uroleucon macaolai was unaffected by plant sex and growth rate, the generalist aphid Aphis gossypii and its tending ants (Linepithema humile) had higher abundances and densities on male (vs. female) plants, suggesting males provide greater habitat quality. In contrast, Aphis and ant abundance and density were unaffected by plant growth rate, while Aphis parasitoids were unaffected by either plant sex or growth rate. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi had higher abundance and density (both marginally significant) on females (vs. males), suggesting females provide greater habitat quality, but lower abundances (marginally significant) and higher densities on slow- (vs. fast-) growing genotypes, suggesting slow-growing genotypes provided lower resource abundance but greater habitat quality. Overall, plant sex and growth rate effects on associates acted independently (i.e., no interactive effects), and these effects were of a greater magnitude than those coming from other axes of plant genetic variation. These findings thus demonstrate that plant genetic effects on associated communities may be driven by a small number of trait-specific mechanisms.

Latitudinal resource gradient shapes multivariate defense strategies in a long-lived shrub.

Plant defense against herbivores is multidimensional, and investment into different defense traits is intertwined due to genetic, physiological, and ecological costs. This relationship is expected to generate a trade-off between direct defense and tolerance that is underlain by resource availability, with increasing resources being associated with increased investment in tolerance and decreased investment in direct resistance. We tested these predictions across populations of the shrub Artemisia californica by growing plants sourced from a latitudinal aridity gradient within common gardens located at the southern (xeric) and northern (mesic) portions of its distribution. We measured plant growth rate, resistance via a damage survey, and tolerance to herbivory by experimentally simulating vertebrate herbivory. Plants from more northern (vs. southern) environments were less resistant (received higher percent damage by vertebrate herbivores) and tended to be more tolerant (marginally significant) with respect to change in biomass measured 12 months after simulated vertebrate herbivory. Also, putative growth and defense traits paralleled patterns of resistance and tolerance, such that leaves from northern populations contained lower concentrations of terpenes and increased N, specific leaf area, and % water. Last, plant growth rate did not demonstrate clear clinal patterns, as northern populations (vs. southern populations) grew more slowly in the southern (xeric) garden, but there was no clinal relationship detected in the northern (mesic) garden. Overall, our findings support the prediction of lower resistance and higher tolerance in plant populations adapted to more resource-rich, mesic environments, but this trade-off was not associated with concomitant trade-offs in growth rate. These findings ultimately suggest that plant adaptation to resource availability and herbivory can shape intraspecific variation in multivariate plant defenses.

Climatic displacement exacerbates the negative impact of drought on plant performance and associated arthropod abundance.

Climate change is acting on species and modifying communities and ecosystems through changes not only with respect to mean abiotic conditions, but also through increases in the frequency and severity of extreme events. Changes in mean aridity associated with climate change can generate ecotype by environment mismatch (i.e., climatic displacement). At the same time, variability around these shifting means is predicted to increase, resulting in more extreme droughts. We characterized the effects of two axes of climate change, climatic displacement and drought, on the shrub Artemisia californica and its arthropods. We established common gardens of plants sourced along an aridity gradient (3.5-fold variation in mean annual precipitation) in an arid region of the species distribution, thus generating a gradient of climatic displacement (sustained increase in aridity) as predicted with climate change. We surveyed plants and arthropods over eight years where precipitation varied sixfold, including both extreme drought and relatively mesic conditions. These two axes of climate change interacted to influence plant performance, such that climatically displaced populations grew slowly regardless of drought and suffered substantial mortality during drought years. Conversely, local populations grew quickly, increased growth during wet years, and had low mortality regardless of drought. Effects on plant annual arthropod yield were negative and additive, with drought effects exceeding that of climatic displacement by 24%. However, for plant lifetime arthropod yield, incorporating effects on both plant growth and survival, climatic displacement exacerbated the negative effects of drought. Collectively these results demonstrate how climatic displacement (through increasing aridity stress) strengthens the negative effects of drought on plants and, indirectly, on arthropods, suggesting the possibility of climate-mediated trophic collapse.

A Hierarchical Mentoring Program Increases Confidence and Effectiveness in Data Analysis and Interpretation for Undergraduate Biology Students.

Science instructors are increasingly incorporating teaching techniques that help students develop core competencies such as critical-thinking and communication skills. These core competencies are pillars of career readiness that prepare undergraduate students to successfully transition to continuing education or the workplace, whatever the field. Course-based undergraduate research experiences that culminate in written research papers can be effective at developing critical-thinking and communication skills but are challenging to implement as class size (and student-to-instructor ratio) grows. We developed a hierarchical mentoring program in which graduate student mentors guided groups of four to five undergraduate students through the scientific process in an upper-level ecology course. Program effectiveness was evaluated by grading final research papers (including previous year papers, before the program was implemented) and surveys (comparing to a course that did not implement the program). Results indicated that primary benefits of hierarchical mentoring were improvements in perceived and demonstrated ability in data analysis and interpretation, leading to a median increase in paper score of ∼10% on a 100-point scale. Future directions indicated by our study were a need to incorporate more approaches (e.g., low-stakes writing exercises) and resources into a revised program to improve outcomes for students whose primary language is not English.

Sexual and genotypic variation in terpene quantitative and qualitative profiles in the dioecious shrub Baccharis salicifolia.

Terpenoids are secondary metabolites produced in most plant tissues and are often considered toxic or repellent to plant enemies. Previous work has typically reported on intra-specific variation in terpene profiles, but the effects of plant sex, an important axis of genetic variation, have been less studied for chemical defences in general, and terpenes in particular. In a prior study, we found strong genetic variation (but not sexual dimorphism) in terpene amounts in leaves of the dioecious shrub Baccharis salicifolia. Here we build on these findings and provide a more in-depth analysis of terpene chemistry on these same plants from an experiment consisting of a common garden with male (N = 19) and female (N = 20) genotypes sourced from a single population. Our goal in the present study was to investigate quantitative and qualitative differences in terpene profiles associated with plant sex and genotypic variation. For this, we quantified leaf mono- and sesquiterpene amount, richness, and diversity (quantitative profile), as well as the composition of compounds (qualitative profile). We found no evidence of sexual dimorphism in monoterpene or sesquiterpene profiles. We did, however, find significant genotypic variation in amount, diversity, and composition of monoterpenes, but no effects on sesquiterpenes. These findings indicated that genotypic variation in terpene profiles largely surpassed variation due to sexual dimorphism for the studied population of this species.

A test for clinal variation in Artemisia californica and associated arthropod responses to nitrogen addition.

The response of plant traits to global change is of fundamental importance to understanding anthropogenic impacts on natural systems. Nevertheless, little is known about plant genetic variation in such responses or the indirect effect of environmental change on higher trophic levels. In a three-year common garden experiment, we grew the shrub Artemisia californica from five populations sourced along a 700 km latitudinal gradient under ambient and nitrogen (N) addition (20 kg N ha-1) and measured plant traits and associated arthropods. N addition increased plant biomass to a similar extent among all populations. In contrast, N addition effects on most other plant traits varied among plant populations; N addition reduced specific leaf area and leaf percent N and increased carbon to nitrogen ratios in the two northern populations, but had the opposite or no effect on the three southern populations. N addition increased arthropod abundance to a similar extent among all populations in parallel with an increase in plant biomass, suggesting that N addition did not alter plant resistance to herbivores. N addition had no effect on arthropod diversity, richness, or evenness. In summary, genetic variation among A. californica populations mediated leaf-trait responses to N addition, but positive direct effects of N addition on plant biomass and indirect effects on arthropod abundance were consistent among all populations.

Traits underlying community consequences of plant intra-specific diversity.

A plant's performance and interactions with other trophic levels are recorgnized to be contingent upon plant diversity and underlying associational dynamics, but far less is known about the plant traits driving such phenomena. We manipulated diversity in plant traits using pairs of plant and a substitutive design to elucidate the mechanisms underlying diversity effects operating at a fine spatial scale. Specifically, we measured the effects of diversity in sex (sexual monocultures vs. male and female genotypes together) and growth rate (growth rate monocultures vs. fast- and slow-growing genotypes together) on growth of the shrub Baccharis salicifolia and on above- and belowground consumers associated with this plant. We compared effects on associate abundance (# associates per plant) vs. density (# associates per kg plant biomass) to elucidate the mechanisms underlying diversity effects; effects on abundance but not density suggest diversity effects are mediated by resource abundance (i.e. plant biomass) alone, whereas effects on density suggest diversity effects are mediated by plant-based heterogeneity or quality. Sexual diversity increased root growth but reduced the density (but not abundance) of the dietary generalist aphid Aphis gossypii and its associated aphid-tending ants, suggesting sex mixtures were of lower quality to this herbivore (e.g. via reduced plant quality), and that this effect indirectly influenced ants. Sexual diversity had no effect on the abundance or density of parasitoids attacking A. gossypii, the dietary specialist aphid Uroleucon macolai, or mycorrhizae. In contrast, growth rate diversity did not influence plant growth or any associates except for the dietary specialist aphid U. macolai, which increased in both abundance and density at high diversity, suggesting growth rate mixtures were of higher quality to this herbivore. These results highlight that plant associational and diversity effects on consumers are contingent upon the source of plant trait variation, and that the nature of such dynamics may vary both within and among trophic levels.

Clinal adaptation and adaptive plasticity in Artemisia californica: implications for the response of a foundation species to predicted climate change.

Local adaptation and plasticity pose significant obstacles to predicting plant responses to future climates. Although local adaptation and plasticity in plant functional traits have been documented for many species, less is known about population-level variation in plasticity and whether such variation is driven by adaptation to environmental variation. We examined clinal variation in traits and performance - and plastic responses to environmental change - for the shrub Artemisia californica along a 700 km gradient characterized (from south to north) by a fourfold increase in precipitation and a 61% decrease in interannual precipitation variation. Plants cloned from five populations along this gradient were grown for 3 years in treatments approximating the precipitation regimes of the north and south range margins. Most traits varying among populations did so clinally; northern populations (vs. southern) had higher water-use efficiencies and lower growth rates, C : N ratios and terpene concentrations. Notably, there was variation in plasticity for plant performance that was strongly correlated with source site interannual precipitation variability. The high-precipitation treatment (vs. low) increased growth and flower production more for plants from southern populations (181% and 279%, respectively) than northern populations (47% and 20%, respectively). Overall, precipitation variability at population source sites predicted 86% and 99% of variation in plasticity in growth and flowering, respectively. These striking, clinal patterns in plant traits and plasticity are indicative of adaptation to both the mean and variability of environmental conditions. Furthermore, our analysis of long-term coastal climate data in turn indicates an increase in interannual precipitation variation consistent with most global change models and, unexpectedly, this increased variation is especially pronounced at historically stable, northern sites. Our findings demonstrate the critical need to integrate fundamental evolutionary processes into global change models, as contemporary patterns of adaptation to environmental clines will mediate future plant responses to projected climate change.