Benefits of Conservation of Plant Genetic Diversity to Arthropod Diversity

By R. Bangert, R. Turek, G. Martinsen, G. Wimp, J. Bailey, T. Whitham. 2005

87 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract: We argue that the genetic diversity of a dominant plant is important to the associated dependent community because dependent species such as herbivores are restricted to a subset of genotypes in the host‐plant population. For plants that function as habitat, we predicted that greater genetic diversity in the plant population would be associated with greater diversity in the dependent arthropod community. Using naturally hybridizing cottonwoods ( Populus spp.) in western North America as a model system, we tested the general hypothesis that arthropod alpha (within cross‐type richness) and beta (among cross‐type composition) diversities are correlated with cottonwood cross types from local to regional scales. In common garden experiments and field surveys, leaf‐modifying arthropod richness was significantly greater on either the F1 (1.54 times) or backcross (1.46 times) hybrid cross types than on the pure broadleaf cross type ( P. deltoides Marshallor P. fremontii Watson). Composition was significantly different among three cross types of cottonwoods at all scales. Within a river system, cottonwood hybrid zones had 1.49 times greater richness than the broadleaf zone, and community composition was significantly different between each parental zone and the hybrid zone, demonstrating a hierarchical concentration of diversity. Overall, the habitats with the highest cottonwood cross‐type diversity also had the highest arthropod diversity. These data show that the genetics of habitat is an important conservation concept and should be a component of conservation theory.

Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7901ff42a174a14eea6e312957db6fe8a6569692

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In Ecology

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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Citations in the corpus

Seagrass genotypic diversity increases disturbance response via complementarity and dominance (2010, background): “Seagrass genotypic diversity increases disturbance response via complementarity and dominance”
Ecological consequences of genetic diversity. (2008, background): “3Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708,”
PLANT GENOTYPE AND ENVIRONMENT INTERACT TO SHAPE A DIVERSE ARTHROPOD COMMUNITY ON EVENING PRIMROSE (OENOTHERA BIENNIS) (2005, background): “Therefore, reductions in the genetic diversity within populations are likely to have immediate community-level consequences for many species (Bangert et al. 2004, Wimp et al. 2004).”
Functional biodiversity in the agricultural landscape: relationships between weeds and arthropod fauna. (2010, background): “Bangert et al. (2005) defined a general rule to predict how genetic variation in a dominant plant species affects the structure of an arthropod community.”
Conservation genetics in a globally changing environment: present problems, paradoxes and future challenges (2007, background): “The ecological consequences of biodiversity loss due to climatic changes and/or to human induced fragmentation, have gained increasing attention over the past decade ( Bangert et al. 2005; Reusch et al. 2005).”