2020 ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 - 6)

OOS 67 - Plants as Mosaics: How Trait Variability Within Plant Individuals Shapes the Ecology and Evolution of Plant-Animal Interactions

Thursday, August 6, 2020: 3:00 PM-3:30 PM
Organizer:
Moria L. Robinson
Co-organizer:
William Wetzel
Moderator:
Deane Bowers
Variability is a critical, but often overlooked driver of ecological interactions. Animals that interact with plants experience astoundingly high trait variability within plant individuals – both spatially among tissues and temporally through plant ontogeny and organ development. While this variability is often treated as mere noise, recent work finds that sub-individual variability can itself be heritable and can influence interactions with consumers and mutualists, suggesting that variability at this scale could be a key phenotypic axis driving plant-animal interactions. In this session, we will explore cutting edge research on the causes and consequences of sub-individual variability in plant traits. Speakers in the session will discuss the major drivers of sub-individual trait variability; the effects of sub-individual variability on different types of biotic interactions, such as herbivory and pollination; and the potential for sub-individual variability to shape coevolutionary outcomes for both plants and animals. By uniting the mechanistic basis, ecological implications, and evolutionary role of this ubiquitous plant characteristic, this session aims to present a holistic view on the role of sub-individual plant trait variation in nature.
3:00 PM
Within-plant epigenetic mosaicism and its cascading ecological effects in wild lavender
Mar Sobral, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela; Carlos M. Herrera, CSIC
3:15 PM
3:30 PM
Small-scale variation in lupine seed fate and secondary metabolites
Megan Blanchard, Northern Arizona University; Deane Bowers, University of Colorado
3:45 PM
Domestication selection shifts leaf trait variability at the within-plant scale
Moria L. Robinson, Michigan State University; William Wetzel, Michigan State University
4:00 PM
Variability is a pervasive feature of plant–herbivore interactions: Data from The Herbivory Variability Network
William Wetzel, Michigan State University; Moria L. Robinson, Michigan State University; Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada, Reno; Philip G. Hahn, University of Florida; Brian D. Inouye, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory; Nora Underwood, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory; Susan R. Whitehead, Virginia Tech; Luke Zehr, Michigan State University; The members of The Herbivory Variability Network, https://herbvar.org/collaborators
4:15 PM
Mating consequences of within-plant floral variation
Mason Kulbaba, University of Calgary; Lawrence Harder, University of Calgary