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Relationships Between Vegetative and Life History Traits and Fitness in a Novel Field Environment: Impacts of Herbivores

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Abstract

At the edge of a species range, plants may experience myriad microenvironmental gradients, which may differ and impose strong yet complex selective regimes. We explore these issues using the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, a native of Europe that has naturalized in North America, which we planted in a common garden field plot in Knoxville, Tennessee and observed across two biotic gradients. We found evidence that directional selection favors increased plant size, consistent with hypotheses of plant responses to novel environments. However, selection differed among plants with fungus gnat larvae damage, aphid damage, and plants that escaped herbivory, evidence that the selective landscape is variable and complex even for quasi-natural field plots. We did not uncover evidence for resistance; however, our results suggest that tolerance of A. thaliana may play an important role for population establishment and persistence in the presence of herbivores in a novel environment. Our findings highlight the variation in one segment of the biotic selective landscape of field environments, as well as the importance of biotic interactions in shaping the success of recently established populations that may be a critical component of post-invasion evolution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, 29424, USA

    Courtney J. Murren

  2. Department of Botany, University of Tennessee, 437 Hesler Building, Knoxville, TN , 37996, USA

    Courtney J. Murren, Warren Denning & Massimo Pigliucci

  3. W Spain Wallace Bld., University of Alabama, 1824 6th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL , 25205, USA

    Warren Denning

  4. Department of Ecology and Evolution, SUNY-Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Massimo Pigliucci

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  1. Courtney J. Murren
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  2. Warren Denning
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Correspondence to Courtney J. Murren.

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Murren, C.J., Denning, W. & Pigliucci, M. Relationships Between Vegetative and Life History Traits and Fitness in a Novel Field Environment: Impacts of Herbivores. Evol Ecol 19, 583–601 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-005-2005-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-005-2005-x

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