Everwand, Georg

[["dc.bibliographiccitation.firstpage","584"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.issue","3"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.journal","Journal of Ecology"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.lastpage","594"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.volume","102"],["dc.contributor.author","Didiano, Teresa J."],["dc.contributor.author","Turley, Nash E."],["dc.contributor.author","Everwand, Georg"],["dc.contributor.author","Schaefer, Hanno"],["dc.contributor.author","Crawley, Michael J."],["dc.contributor.author","Johnson, Marc T. J."],["dc.date.accessioned","2018-11-07T09:41:04Z"],["dc.date.available","2018-11-07T09:41:04Z"],["dc.date.issued","2014"],["dc.description.abstract","Plant defence traits have evolved over macro- and microevolutionary time-scales in response to herbivores. Although a number of studies have investigated the evolutionary impacts of herbivores over short time-scales, few studies have experimentally examined what defence traits most commonly evolve and whether multiple coexisting species exhibit similar evolutionary responses to herbivores. We addressed these questions using a long-term experiment at Silwood Park, England, United Kingdom, where we excluded rabbits from 38 grassland plots for <1-34years. To assess the evolutionary impacts of rabbits on plant defence traits, we collected seeds from plots containing the following perennial species: Anthoxanthum odoratum (Poaceae), Festuca rubra ssp. rubra (Poaceae), Holcus lanatus (Poaceae) and Stellaria graminea (Caryophyllaceae). We then grew these plants in a common garden and measured defensive and morphological traits. We found some evidence for evolutionary change of defence traits in three of the four species following the exclusion of rabbits. We observed the clearest changes in F.rubra, which showed a 9% decline in tolerance to herbivory and a 26% decline in leaf number. We also observed weak evidence for a change in all grass species towards a more erect growth form suggesting that grazing selects for plants that grow close to the ground. Although our results are most consistent with evolution due to changes in the frequency of alleles and genotypes, we cannot rule out that epigenetic changes (e.g. methylation) or maternal environmental effects also contributed to or caused the observed long-term phenotypic responses. Synthesis. Our study provides an experimental test of the evolutionary effects of an ecologically important herbivore. We found evidence for plant defence evolution following >20years of rabbit exclusion. However, the evidence was only strong in one species for multiple traits, weak in all three grass species for avoidance and absent in an herb species. This suggests that the evolutionary effects of an ecologically important herbivore on plants will be variable and difficult to predict in nature."],["dc.identifier.doi","10.1111/1365-2745.12227"],["dc.identifier.isi","000334588300004"],["dc.identifier.uri","https://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gro-2/33642"],["dc.notes.status","zu prüfen"],["dc.notes.submitter","Najko"],["dc.publisher","Wiley-blackwell"],["dc.relation.issn","1365-2745"],["dc.relation.issn","0022-0477"],["dc.title","Experimental test of plant defence evolution in four species using long-term rabbit exclosures"],["dc.type","journal_article"],["dc.type.internalPublication","yes"],["dc.type.peerReviewed","yes"],["dc.type.status","published"],["dspace.entity.type","Publication"]]

[["dc.bibliographiccitation.firstpage","S21"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.journal","The American Naturalist"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.lastpage","S34"],["dc.bibliographiccitation.volume","181"],["dc.contributor.author","Turley, Nash E."],["dc.contributor.author","Odell, Walter C."],["dc.contributor.author","Schaefer, Hanno"],["dc.contributor.author","Everwand, Georg"],["dc.contributor.author","Crawley, Michael J."],["dc.contributor.author","Johnson, Marc T. J."],["dc.date.accessioned","2018-11-07T09:25:28Z"],["dc.date.available","2018-11-07T09:25:28Z"],["dc.date.issued","2013"],["dc.description.abstract","Herbivores are credited with driving the evolutionary diversification of plant defensive strategies over macroevolutionary time. For this to be true, herbivores must also cause short-term evolution within plant populations, but few studies have experimentally tested this prediction. We addressed this gap using a long-term manipulative field experiment where exclosures protected 22 plant populations from natural rabbit herbivory for <1 to 26 years. We collected seeds of Rumex acetosa L. (Polygonaceae) from our plots and grew them in a common greenhouse environment to quantify evolved differences among populations in individual plant growth rate, tolerance to herbivory, competitive ability, and the concentration of secondary metabolites (tannins and oxalate) implicated in defense against herbivores. In 26 years without rabbit herbivory, plant growth rate decreased linearly by 30%. We argue that plant growth rate has evolved as a defense against intense rabbit herbivory. In contrast, we found no change in tolerance to herbivory or concentrations of secondary metabolites. We also found no change in competitive ability, suggesting that contemporary evolution may not feed back to alter ecological interactions within this plant community. Our results combined with those of other studies show that the evolution of gross morphological traits such as growth rate in response to herbivory may be common, which calls into question assumptions about some of the most popular theories of plant defense."],["dc.identifier.doi","10.1086/668075"],["dc.identifier.isi","000317840400003"],["dc.identifier.pmid","23598357"],["dc.identifier.uri","https://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gro-2/30074"],["dc.notes.status","zu prüfen"],["dc.notes.submitter","Najko"],["dc.publisher","Univ Chicago Press"],["dc.relation.issn","0003-0147"],["dc.title","Contemporary Evolution of Plant Growth Rate Following Experimental Removal of Herbivores"],["dc.type","journal_article"],["dc.type.internalPublication","yes"],["dc.type.peerReviewed","yes"],["dc.type.status","published"],["dspace.entity.type","Publication"]]