Beyond the compensatory continuum: environmental resource levels and plant tolerance of herbivory

Abstract

Wise, M. J. and Abrahamson, W. G. 2005. Beyond the compensatory continuum: environmental resource levels and plant tolerance of herbivory. Á/ Oikos 109: 417 Á/428.The impact that herbivore damage has on plant fitness depends on the environmental conditions in which the plant is growing. It has long been assumed that a plant's tolerance of herbivory should be greater in low-stress, resource-rich environments, and this assumption has been formalized in what has become known as the compensatory continuum hypothesis (CCH). Despite the widespread acceptance of the CCH, recently accumulating results from numerous studies relating resource levels to tolerance of herbivory show that the relationship is not as simple as this hypothesis predicts. In fact, plants have often been found to be less tolerant of a given amount of herbivory in resource-rich environments than they are of the same amount of herbivory in resourcepoor environments. In this article, we present a new model, the limiting resource model (LRM), that can more reliably explain the range of observed effects of resource levels on tolerance. The main advance of this model is that it specifically considers which factors are limiting plant fitness and which resources are affected by particular herbivores. The LRM is presented in a general and flexible form as a flowchart with seven pathways to three potential outcomes: greater tolerance, equal tolerance, or lower tolerance in low-vs high-resource environments. We then review a specific example to illustrate each of these seven pathways with a study from the published literature. We finish with a description of four general criteria to direct the design of future studies to test the predictions of the LRM.

Do Clonal and Bud Bank Traits Vary in Correspondence with Soil Properties and Resource Acquisition Strategies? Patterns in Alpine Communities in the Scandian Mountains

“…The expression of these relationships results from an interaction with the level of resource availability (Ferraro and Oesterheld 2002;Wise and Abrahamson 2005). For example, high tissue turnover and resource acquisition rates are important strategies for plants with high growth rates (del-Val and Crawley 2005) and occurring at high resource availability (Grime et al 1997).…”

Why Is Living Fast Dangerous? Disentangling the Roles of Resistance and Tolerance of Disease

“…In contrast, the primary impact of B/CYDVs on hosts is disruption of the uptake and distribution of a different resource-carbon from the atmosphere (Jensen and D'Arcy 1995;Malmström and Field 1997). Consequently, experiments that manipulate both B/CYDVs and light availability or the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 might reveal both a greater importance of tolerance and a trade-off between tolerance and resistance (Wise and Abrahamson 2005; but see Rú a et al 2013).…”

“…In contrast to resistant phenotypes, tolerant phenotypes do not reduce vector and/or pathogen activity. Instead, tolerant phenotypes have a greater capacity to acquire or allocate limiting resources when infected and, consequently, a greater capacity to minimize the impact of damage on host fitness (e.g., Chase et al 2000b;Roy and Kirchner 2000;Stowe et al 2000;Wise and Abrahamson 2005;Miller et al 2007;Baucom and de Roode 2011;Medzhitov et al 2012). By minimizing the impact of damage on host fitness, tolerant phenotypes might have the capacity to support greater vector and/or virus populations or remain infectious for a longer time period.…”

“…While two recent empirical studies suggest that genetically determined tolerance decreases as HDT increases (Rose et al 2009;Johnson et al 2012), evolutionary models predict that tolerance can evolve to be greatest in large/slow phenotypes, small/quick phenotypes, or intermediate phenotypes (Stowe et al 2000;Miller et al 2007). Moreover, host tolerance is also strongly influenced by environmental conditions, particularly the availability of limiting resources (Wise and Abrahamson 2005;Hall et al 2009;Cronin et al 2010a), and this environmental influence could overwhelm genetic influences.…”

Overcompensation in response to simulated herbivory in the perennial herb Sedum maximum

“…Under highresource conditions, plants exhibit more branched architecture by preserving fewer dormant buds, which results in lower herbivory tolerance (Rautio et al 2005). Wise and Abrahamson (2005) attempted to unify these different approaches, proposing a model differentiating between resources that limit plant fitness and those that are affected by herbivores.…”