A unified framework for plant life‐history strategies shaped by fire and herbivory

Plant life-history strategies are constrained by cost-benefit trade-offs that determine plant form and function. However, despite recent advances in the understanding of trade-offs for vegetative and physiological traits, little is known about plant reproductive economics and how they constrain plant life-history strategies and shape interactions with floral visitors. Here, we investigate plant reproductive trade-offs and how these drive interactions with floral visitors using a dataset of 17 reproductive traits for 1,506 plant species from 28 plant-pollinator studies across 18 countries. We tested whether a plant's reproductive strategy predicts its interactions with floral visitors and if the different reproductive traits predict the plant's role within the pollination network. We found that over half of all plant reproductive trait variation was explained by two independent axes that encompassed plant form and function. Specifically, the first axis indicated the presence of a trade-off between flower number and flower size, while the second axis indicated a pollinator dependency trade-off. Plant reproductive trade-offs helped explain partly the presence or absence of interactions with floral visitors, but not differences in visitation rate. However, we did find important differences in the interaction level among floral visitor guilds on the different axes of trait variation. Finally, we found that plant size and floral rewards were the most important traits in the understanding of the plant species network role. Our results highlight the importance of plant reproductive trade-offs in determining plant life-history strategies and plant-pollinator interactions in a global context.

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Correction for Adler et al., Functional traits explain variation in plant life history strategies

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1410430111 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 111 (27) ◽

pp. 10019-10019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Functional Traits ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Plant Life

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Qualification of Rangeland Degradation Using Plant Life History Strategies Around Watering Points in Southern Tunisia

Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences ◽

10.3923/pjbs.2007.1229.1235 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 1229-1235 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Mohamed Tarhouni ◽

Azaiez Ouled Belgacem ◽

Mohamed Neffati ◽

Belgacem Hench

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Rangeland Degradation ◽

Plant Life ◽

Southern Tunisia

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18. Comparing Relationships between Plant Body Sizes and Minimum Reproductive Threshold Sizes for Species of Contrasting Life History

Inquiry@Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings ◽

10.24908/iqurcp.10122 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

John Serafini

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life Histories ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Early Death ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Competitive Fitness ◽

Threshold Size ◽

Plant Life ◽

Body Sizes ◽

Disturbed Habitats

Two traits are fundamental in defining plant life history strategies: How big can a species get? And how big does it need to get before it can reproduce? Previous research has shown that there is a general positive relationship between these two traits, across species, and this can be accounted for as a trade-off. In this project, I explored whether this relationship differs among herbaceous species with perennial versus annual or biennial life histories. Perennials, because of their capacity to grow across several years, might generally be expected to display a relatively large MAX (maximum potential body size) and hence large MIN (minimum reproductive threshold size) compared with annuals or biennials that live only one or two years. In addition, annuals/biennials might be expected generally to have a smaller MIN for a given MAX, compared with perennials because of selection in the ancestral past — i.e. in frequently disturbed habitats, where annuals and biennials are common, predictable early death (from disturbance) has imposed strong selection to produce at least some offspring quickly, regardless of how small/suppressed the plant might be. I tested these predictions for resident plants sampled from natural populations of 105 species found in the vicinity of Kingston, Ontario. Remarkably, the results support neither prediction, and point to an alternative consequence of selection in shaping plant life history strategies; i.e. small MIN for a given MAX has also been favoured in perennials but for a different reason — as a strategy for competitive fitness.

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