Latitudinal resource gradient shapes multivariate defense strategies in a long-lived shrub.

ABSTRACT: Plant defense against herbivores is multidimensional, and investment into different defense traits is intertwined due to genetic, physiological, and ecological costs. This relationship is expected to generate a trade-off between direct defense and tolerance that is underlain by resource availability, with increasing resources being associated with increased investment in tolerance and decreased investment in direct resistance. We tested these predictions across populations of the shrub Artemisia californica by growing plants sourced from a latitudinal aridity gradient within common gardens located at the southern (xeric) and northern (mesic) portions of its distribution. We measured plant growth rate, resistance via a damage survey, and tolerance to herbivory by experimentally simulating v

SUBMITTER: Croy JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10078560 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature