“…most of the focus in community ecology has been, up to now, on more obviously functional phenotypes — morphological diversity, and metabolic diversity. They’ve shown that the chemical content of plants’ tissues is more closely related to their phylogenetic history than traits in those categories.”

Excellent review by molecular ecologist Jeremy Yoder on recent paper examining chemical ecology & diversity. #ecology #ChemicalEcology

https://www.molecularecologist.com/2023/07/25/the-key-to-a-productive-plant-community-may-be-the-members-chemistry/

The key to a productive plant community may be the members’ chemistry

A milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) on butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), one of the plant species in the experiment. Butterfly weed is part of a plant family that produce cardiac glycosides as…

The Molecular Ecologist