10.5061/DRYAD.JH9W0VT89
Muehleisen, Andrew
0000-0003-1389-5643
University of Oregon
Engelbrecht, Bettina
University of Bayreuth
Jones, F. Andrew
Oregon State University
Manzané-Pinzón, Eric
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Comita, Liza
0000-0002-9169-1331
Yale University
Data from: Local adaptation to herbivory within tropical tree species
along a rainfall gradient
Dryad
dataset
2020
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
NSF DEB 1464866
Tropical Resources Institute
https://ror.org/04jddh448
2021-07-19T00:00:00Z
2021-07-19T00:00:00Z
en
164590 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
In tropical forests, insect herbivores exert significant pressure on plant
populations. Adaptation to such pressure is hypothesized to be a driver of
high tropical diversity, but direct evidence for local adaptation to
herbivory in tropical forests is sparse. At the same time, herbivore
pressure has been hypothesized to increase with rainfall in the tropics,
which could lead to differences among sites in the degree of local
adaptation. To assess the presence of local adaptation and its interaction
with rainfall, we compared herbivore damage on seedlings of local vs
non-local populations at sites differing in moisture availability in a
reciprocal transplant experiment spanning a rainfall gradient in Panama.
For 13 native tree species, seeds collected from multiple populations
along the rainfall gradient were germinated in a shadehouse and then
transplanted to experimental sites within the species range. We tracked
the likelihood of herbivore attack over 1.5 years and quantified the
percentage of leaf area damaged at the end of the study. Seedlings
originating from local populations were less likely to be attacked and
experienced lower amounts of herbivore damage than those from non-local
populations, but only on the wetter end of the rainfall gradient. However,
overall herbivore damage was higher at the drier site compared to wetter
sites, contrary to expectation. Taken together, these findings support the
idea that herbivory can result in local adaptation within tropical tree
species; however, the likelihood of local adaptation varies among sites
due to environmentally-driven differences in investment in defense or
herbivore specialization or both.
Seed from 13 shade-tolerant tree species from Central Panama, representing
2-3 populations of each species, was grown to seedling in a shadehouse and
reciprocally transplanted into the forest understory across each
species' range. Seedlings were monitored in fenced 1x1 meter plots
for 1.5 years, where we tracked whether each individual experienced
herbivory during the experiment, and quantified detailed percent standing
herbivory at the end of the experiment using photos and corresponding
image analysis.
Please see 'SpeciesCodes.txt' for seedling identity. See
'ReadMe.txt' for explanation of variables in dataset.