Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RoseTriComm (Evolution of Rose Gall Tritrophic Communities)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2024-08-31
The overall objective of this project is to develop and apply an analytical approach that allows discrimination between competing hypotheses for observed patterns of interaction in tritrophic communities of plants, herbivores and parasitoid natural enemies. At one extreme, the Sequential Radiation Hypothesis (SRH) sees herbivore-parasitoid interactions as driven from the 'bottom-up', by plant-herbivore interactions. The SRH predicts that diversification of herbivores will track diversification of their food plants, and that related herbivores (and related parasitoids) will be found on related plants. In contrast, the Tritrophic Niche Concept (TNC) sees a major role for 'top-down' effects resulting from parasitoid-imposed selection on herbivore traits. If parasitoids drive the evolution of herbivore defences, then these, rather than patterns at lower trophic levels, could structure herbivore-parasitoid interactions.
We develop a generalisable statistical approach for analysis of tritrophic interactions, and illustrate its use by application to an unparalleled dataset for replicate real-world communities of plants, gall wasp herbivores and parasitoid natural enemies. Our approach combines trophic interaction, herbivore trait and phylogenetic data for all three trophic levels to address four questions:
1. Do plant-herbivore interactions match the predictions of the Sequential Radiation Hypothesis?
2. Are herbivore-parasitoid interactions structured by herbivore host plant associations (SRH), herbivore defence traits (TNC), or both of these?
3. Have herbivore defence traits evolved convergently in replicate natural communities? If herbivore defences target fundamental aspects of parasitoid attack behaviour, then the TNC predicts that they should.
4. Can we use statistical models to accurately predict the parasitoid assemblages associated with unsampled herbivore hosts?
We develop a generalisable statistical approach for analysis of tritrophic interactions, and illustrate its use by application to an unparalleled dataset for replicate real-world communities of plants, gall wasp herbivores and parasitoid natural enemies. Our approach combines trophic interaction, herbivore trait and phylogenetic data for all three trophic levels to address four questions:
1. Do plant-herbivore interactions match the predictions of the Sequential Radiation Hypothesis?
2. Are herbivore-parasitoid interactions structured by herbivore host plant associations (SRH), herbivore defence traits (TNC), or both of these?
3. Have herbivore defence traits evolved convergently in replicate natural communities? If herbivore defences target fundamental aspects of parasitoid attack behaviour, then the TNC predicts that they should.
4. Can we use statistical models to accurately predict the parasitoid assemblages associated with unsampled herbivore hosts?
Generated COI barcoding data and Ultraconserved Elements genomic data for rose gall wasps and their parasitoids.
Interaction matrix between trophic levels
R code for MCMCglmm modelling
3 publications, 1 in press, and 1 in prep
Interaction matrix between trophic levels
R code for MCMCglmm modelling
3 publications, 1 in press, and 1 in prep
Natural communities of plants, insect herbivores and their natural enemies make up most of the species on Earth and contribute to many crucial ecosystem functions. From a human perspective, these communities include both food crops and noxious weeds, useful pollinators and harmful pests, and useful biocontrol agents. This projects aims to improve understanding of why some species interact (in the sense of eating, or being eaten) with more species than others, and also what determines which species interact. The research focusses on natural communities of gallwasp herbivores and parasitoid natural enemies associated with roses and oaks and related plants across the Northern Hemisphere. The work involves international collaborations with scientists in the USA, Hungary and China.
We see major beneficiaries as falling into three groups:
(i) Governmental organisations, particularly Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), SEPA (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency), and Natural Resources Wales).
(ii) Research agencies, particularly FERA (the Food and Environment Research Agency), which maintains the Plant Health Risk Register and coordinates collection of data on OCGW and associated control measures for Defra, and Forest Research, which coordinates many of the control measures for alien forest pests.
(iii) Charitable organisations, particularly the National Trust, National Trust for Scotland, and the Woodland Trust.
We see major international beneficiaries of our work as equivalent institutions in other countries who we will reach through our Chinese project partners and IUFRO (the International Union of Forest Research Organisations), which brings together a wide range of policy makers and practitioners in forest management (see below).
We see major beneficiaries as falling into three groups:
(i) Governmental organisations, particularly Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), SEPA (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency), and Natural Resources Wales).
(ii) Research agencies, particularly FERA (the Food and Environment Research Agency), which maintains the Plant Health Risk Register and coordinates collection of data on OCGW and associated control measures for Defra, and Forest Research, which coordinates many of the control measures for alien forest pests.
(iii) Charitable organisations, particularly the National Trust, National Trust for Scotland, and the Woodland Trust.
We see major international beneficiaries of our work as equivalent institutions in other countries who we will reach through our Chinese project partners and IUFRO (the International Union of Forest Research Organisations), which brings together a wide range of policy makers and practitioners in forest management (see below).