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Resistance to herbicide and susceptibility to herbivores: environmental variation in the magnitude of an ecological trade-off

  • Plant-animal interactions
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Abstract

Trade-offs can maintain genetic diversity and constrain adaptation; however, their magnitude may depend on ecological factors. I considered whether resistance to the herbicide triazine in Amaranthus hybridus (Amaranthaceae) imposed the trade-off of increasing susceptibility to herbivorous insects. I grew triazine-resistant and triazine-susceptible plants under contrasting levels of light and fertilization, and quantified susceptibility to herbivores using the specialist Disonycha glabrata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and the generalist Trichoplusia ni (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Resistance to triazine increased susceptibility to both species of herbivorous insects, as manifested by greater feeding preference, growth, and survival of herbivores. However, these effects were more pronounced with T. ni and for plants grown under high light. My results demonstrate the presence of a trade-off between resistance to triazine and susceptibility to herbivorous insects that may in turn impose an ecologically based fitness cost, and illustrate the potential for this cost to vary across environments.

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Acknowledgements

I thank I. Baldwin, D. Futuyma, D. Hare, and D. Reznick for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. N. Jordan generously provided the Amaranthus lines used in this study. Access to sites for collecting D. glabrata was granted by D. Gill and the Chester River Field Research Center; S. Hagood at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and M. Heller at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Clagett Farm. M. Axelrod and J. Klumpp greatly facilitated greenhouse work. A. Levy provided T. ni eggs. I was supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DEB 0206448) from the National Science Foundation, a Grant-in-Aid of Research from Sigma Xi, and a GAANN Fellowship from the US Department of Education. This is Contribution No. 1135 in Ecology and Evolution from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

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  1. Aaron J. Gassmann

    Present address: Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, 410 Forbes Building, P.O. Box 210036, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolution, SUNY-Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-5245, USA

    Aaron J. Gassmann

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Gassmann, A.J. Resistance to herbicide and susceptibility to herbivores: environmental variation in the magnitude of an ecological trade-off. Oecologia 145, 575–585 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0112-6

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