Information arms race explains plant-herbivore chemical communication in ecological communities
Resource type
Journal article
Date published
June 18, 2020
Abstract
Plants emit an extraordinary diversity of chemicals that provide information about their identity and mediate their interactions with insects. However, most studies of this have focused on a few model species in controlled environments, limiting our capacity to understand plant-insect chemical communication in ecological communities. Here, by integrating information theory with ecological and evolutionary theories, we show that a stable information structure of plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can emerge from a conflicting information process between plants and herbivores. We corroborate this information “arms race” theory with field data recording plant-VOC associations and plant-herbivore interactions in a tropical dry forest. We reveal that plant VOC redundancy and herbivore specialization can be explained by a conflicting information transfer. Information-based communication approaches can increase our understanding of species interactions across trophic levels.
Journal title
Science
Volume
368
Issue
6497
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
ISSN
0036-8075
eISSN
1095-9203
Rights statement
In Copyright
Collection
Philip Stevenson