Defensive (anti-herbivory) Coloration in Land Plants (eBook)

Simcha Lev-Yadun (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2016 | 1st ed. 2016
XXIII, 385 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-42096-7 (ISBN)

Infos

This book presents visual plant defenses (camouflage, mimicry and aposematism via coloration, morphology and even movement) against herbivores. It is mainly an ideological monograph, a manifesto representing my current understanding on defensive plant coloration and related issues. The book is not the final word in anything, but rather the beginning of many things. It aims to establish visual anti-herbivory defense as an integral organ of botany, or plant science as it is commonly called today. I think that like in animals, many types of plant coloration can be explained by selection associated with the sensory/cognitive systems of herbivores and predators to reduce herbivory. It is intended to intrigue and stimulate students of botany/plant science and plant/animal interactions for a very long time. This book is tailored to a readership of biologists and naturalists of all kinds and levels, and more specifically for botanists, ecologists, evolutionists and to those interested in plant/animal interactions. It is written from the point of view of a naturalist, ecologist and evolutionary biologist that I hold, considering natural selection as the main although not the only drive for evolution. According to this perspective, factors such as chance, founder effects, genetic drift and various stochastic processes that may and do influence characters found in specific genotypes, are not comparable in their power and influence to the common outcomes of natural selection, especially manifested when very many species belonging to different plant families, with very different and separate evolutionary histories, arrive at the same adaptation, something that characterizes many of the visual patterns and proposed adaptations described and discussed in this book. Many of the discussed visual defensive mechanisms are aimed at operating before the plants are damaged, i.e., to be their first line of defense. In this respect, I think that the name of the book by Ruxton et al. (2004) 'Avoiding Attack' is an excellent phrase for the assembly of the best types of defensive tactics. While discussing anti-herbivory, I do remember, study and teach physiological/developmental aspects of some of the discussed coloration patterns, and I am fully aware of the simultaneous and diverse functions of many plant characters in addition to defense.

Prof. Simcha Lev-Yadun

Department of Biology and Environment,

Faculty of Natural Sciences,

University of Haifa- Oranim, 

Tivon 36006 

Israel

Major Research Interests: 

The beginning of agriculture: The biology and genetics of plant‎‎ domestication.‎

The ecology and evolution of defensive vegetative coloration in plants.‎

Developmental processes in plants: meristematic activity and its ecology‎‎ and regulation, fate of apical meristems, homeosis, pattern formation.

Arabidopsis thaliana as a model for the biology of trees.‎

Biology and ecology of trees and other woody plants.‎

Palaeoecology: Dendrochronology, identification of botanical material‎‎ from archaeological excavations, reconstruction of palaeoenvironments.‎

Inhalt

Part I - General backgroundChapter 1.    IntroductionChapter 2.    Plants are not sitting ducks waiting for herbivores to eat themChapter 3.    The many defensive mechanisms of plantsChapter 4.    No defense is perfect and defense is always relativeChapter 5.    Operating under stress and fear in the military as a lesson concerning difficulties for herbivory in nature. Factors that lower the need for perfect defensive mechanisms including            mimicryChapter 6.    Evaluating risk: the problematic and even erroneous common view of "no damage or no attack equals no risk"Chapter 7.    Partial descriptions of color patterns in floras and handbooks has consequences on the study of plant coloration biologyChapter 8.    Animal color visionChapter 9.    The nature of signalsChapter 10.  White as a visual signalChapter 11.  Visual signaling by plants to animals via colorChapter 12.  Müllerian and Batesian mimics are extended phenotypesPart II - Gentle defensesChapter 13.  CamouflageChapter 14.  Seed camouflageChapter 15.  Pod and seed camouflage in the genus PisumChapter 16.  Defensive functions of white coloration in coastal and dune plantsChapter 17.  Gloger's rule in plants: the species and ecosystem levelsChapter 18.  Defensive masquerade by plantsChapter 19.  Potential defense from herbivory by dazzle effects and trickery coloration of variegated leavesChapter 20.  Plants undermine herbirorous insect camouflage Chapter 21.  Delayed greeningChapter 22.  Red/purple leaf margin coloration: potential defensive functionsPart III - Aggressive defensesChapter 23.  AposematismChapter 24.  Olfactory aposematismChapter 25.  The anecdotal history of discussing plant aposematic colorationChapter 26.  Aposematic coloration in thorny, spiny and prickly plantsChapter 27.  Fearful symmetry in aposematic spiny plantsChapter 28.  Color changes in old aposematic thorns, spines, and pricklesChapter 29.  Pathogenic bacteria and fungi on thorns, spines and pricklesChapter 30.  Aposematism in plants with silica needles and raphids made of calcium oxalateChapter 31.  Müllerian and Batesian mimicry rings of aposematic thorny, spiny and toxic plantsChapter 32.  Batesian mimicry and automimicry of aposematic thorns, spines and pricklesChapter 33.  Additional cases of defensive visual Batesian mimicry among plantsChapter 34.  When may green plants be aposematic?Chapter 35.  Spiny east Mediterranean plant species flower later and in a drier season than non-spiny speciesChapter 36.  Biochemical evidence of convergent evolution of aposematic coloration in thorny, spiny and prickly plantsChapter 37.  Aposematic coloration in poisonous flowers, fruits and seedsChapter 38.  Aposematic trichomes: probably an overlooked common phenomenonChapter 39.  Why is latex usually white and only sometimes yellow, orange or red? Simultaneous visual and chemical plant defenseChapter 40.  Visual defenses basically operating by various mechanisms that have an aposematic componentChapter 41.  Plant aposematism involving fungiChapter 42.  Do plants use visual and olfactory carrion-based aposematism to deter herbivores?Chapter 43.  Gall aposematismChapter 44.  Experimental evidence for plant aposematismPart IV - Masterpieces of visual defenseChapter 45.  The complicated enigma of red and yellow autumn leavesChapter 46.  Leaf color variabilityChapter 47.  What do red and yellow autumn leaves signal for sure?Chapter 48.  The second generation of hypotheses about colorful autumn leavesChapter 49.  The shared and separate roles of aposematic (warning) coloration and the co-evolution hypothesis in defending autumn leavesChapter 50.  Spring versus autumn or young versus old leaf colors: evidence for different selective agents and evolution in various species and florasChapter 51.  How red is the red autumn leaf herring and did it lose its red color?Chapter 52.  Defensive animal and animal action mimicry by plantsChapter 53.  Caterpillar and other herbivore feeding damage mimicry as defenseChapter 54.  Tunneling damage mimicryChapter 55.  Butterfly egg mimicryChapter 56.  Caterpillar mimicryChapter 57.  Aphid mimicryChapter 58.  Ant mimicryChapter 59.  Beetle mimicryChapter 60.  Spider web mimicryChapter 61.  Defensive bee and wasp mimicry by orchid flowersChapter 62.  Gall midge mimicryChapter 63.  Arthropod wing movement mimicryChapter 64.  "Eye spot" mimicryChapter 65.  Snake mimicryChapter 66.  Visual and olfactory feces and carrion mimicryChapter 67.  Extended phenotypeChapter 68.  A general perspective of defensive animal mimicry by plantsChapter 69.  Currently temporary final words

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.10.2016
• Zusatzinfo: XXIII, 385 p. 169 illus. in color.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Botanik
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: aposematism • Camouflage • Defense • Entomology • herbivory • leaf color • tree biology
• ISBN-10: 3-319-42096-8 / 3319420968
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-42096-7 / 9783319420967