Interactions are important drivers of selection and community structure, which makes the study of multi-species interactions critical for understanding the ecology and evolution of organisms. This dissertation includes four data chapters that examine the biotic and abiotic mechanisms that shape multi-species interactions in both tropical and temperate ecosystems. The first three data chapters (Chapters 2–4) were completed within a Neotropical rainforest in Costa Rica and focus on one plant genus, Piper (Piperaceae). The final data chapter (Chapter 5) was conducted within a working landscape of soybean (Glycine max) fields in eastern Maryland, USA. In Chapter 2, I explore intra- and inter-specific dietary niche partitioning of Piper fruits among three frugivorous bats, illustrating the importance of fine-scale mechanisms that facilitate species coexistence and influence plant–animal interactions. In Chapter 3, I demonstrate how the chemical ecology of a Neotropical shrub, Piper sancti-felicis, shapes fruit interactions with antagonists (fruit fungi) and mutualists (frugivorous bats and birds), developing a foundation for understanding evolutionary ecology of plant chemical traits based on phytochemical investment patterns. In Chapter 4, I describe the direct and indirect impacts of elevated temperature and CO2 concentration on the plant traits and interactions in Piper generalense, improving our understanding of the effects of climate change on a Neotropical plant–herbivore system. In Chapter 5, I explore the biotic (herbivore-induced plant volatiles) and abiotic (fine-scale weather conditions) drivers affecting insectivorous bat foraging in soybean fields in eastern Maryland, providing a pathway to further investigate new strategies for integrated pest management. As a collective work, this dissertation disentangles the nuances of multi-species interactions, exploring foundational mechanisms underlying biodiversity maintenance as well as answering applied questions to address a changing climate and aid sustainable agriculture. / Doctor of Philosophy / Everything in nature is connected, so studying ecological interactions requires us to view them from many different angles. As with most relationships, ecological interactions are multi-faceted and context-dependent. In this dissertation, I describe both tropical and temperate systems, collecting a variety of measurements from plants, microbes, and animals to explore the complicated relationships that exist between them. In Chapter 2, I explore how three species of fruit-eating bats may divide the use of a shared food resource (tropical pepper fruits in the genus Piper) to maintain separate populations and how those foraging differences may affect Piper plant populations. In Chapter 3, I characterize a chemical compound found in the fruits of a Piper plant species and test the effect of that compound on fruit fungi and fruit-eating bats and birds, leading to a better understanding of the selective pressures affecting fruit chemistry. In Chapter 4, I describe the direct and indirect effects of climate change on a Piper plant in the first study to measure the responses of tropical understory plants to treatments that mimic climate change using active warming and CO2 supplementation. In Chapter 5, I explore the fine-scale drivers of bat activity in soybean fields, including how weather conditions and the specific compounds emitted by insect-damaged plants may affect bat activity. As a collective work, this dissertation describes the complex relationships among plants and their many interactors, exploring questions from biodiversity maintenance to integrated pest management strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/112961 |
| Date | 20 December 2022 |
| Creators | Maynard, Lauren Danielle |
| Contributors | Biological Sciences, Whitehead, Susan R., Jelesko, John G., Tholl, Dorothea, Ford, W. Mark, Hawley, Dana M. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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