Initial Community Convergence on Plant Defense Syndromes Explains Community Responses to Herbivore Exclosures

Abstract

General trade-offs in species’ energy use are highlighted here by mapping proposed defense syndromes, using trade-offs found between: constitutive phenolic compounds, silica and a high nutrient low defense region found between regional con-specifics. Differences in species composition between two catchments can be explained by proposed syndrome trade-offs seeking energy use optimums in differing (a)biotic conditions. Mapping compositional change resulting from herbivore exclosure experiments, as trade-offs in identified “defense” syndromes between con-specifics when a constraint is lifted, yields a dimension beginning to populate a less constrained fitness landscape. However, at the same time other (a)biotic forces continue to push the system to a resource use optimum. In this system, changes conspire to move catchments in a similar direction. It is proposed that defining and discovering trait suites occurring from (a)biotic trade-offs, are best modeled by finding trade-offs at other scales; and that modeling them through time produces a viable model of speciation/convergence occurring through a fitness landscape.