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Anti-herbivore defense shows high levels of both inter- and intraspecific variability. Defending against herbivores may be costly to the plant when it requires a tradeoff in allocation between defense and other missed opportunities, such as reproduction. Indeed, the plastic expression of defensive traits allows the plant to invest resources in defense only when the risk of being damaged actually increases, avoiding wasted resources. Plants may assess risk by responding to volatile cues emitted by neighbors that are under attack. Most plastic responses likely depend on environmental conditions. In this experiment, we investigated the effect of water availability on resistance induced by volatile cues in sagebrush. We found that plants receiving additional water over summer and/or volatile cues from neighbor donor plants showed reduced herbivore damage compared to control plants. Interestingly, we found no evidence of interactions between additional water and volatile cues. We performed an inferential analysis comparing historical records of the levels of herbivore damage during different years that had different temperature and precipitation accumulations. Results confirmed findings from the experiment, as the regression model indicated that sagebrush was better defended during wetter and hotter seasons. Reports from the literature indicated that sagebrush is extremely sensitive to water availability in the soil. We suggest that water availability may directly affect resistance of herbivory as well as sensitivity to cues of damage. Costs and benefits of allocating resources to defensive traits may vary with environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reciprocal transplant experiments have often provided evidence of local adaptation in temperate plants, but few such studies have been conducted in the tropics. To enhance our knowledge of local adaptation in tropical plants, we studied natural populations of two recently diverged Neotropical plant species, Costus allenii and C. villosissimus, in central Panama. We found that these species display a parapatric distribution that reflects local environmental differences on a fine geographic scale: C. allenii is found along ravines in the understory of primary forest, while C. villosissimus is found along forest edges. Light availability was lower in C. allenii habitats, while precipitation and soil moisture were lower in C. villosissimus habitats. We carried out reciprocal transplant experiments with seeds and clones of mature plants to test the hypothesis that the parapatric distribution of these species is due to divergent adaptation to their local habitats. We found strong evidence of local adaptation, i.e., when grown in their ''home'' sites, each species outperformed the species from an ''away'' site. Our finding that C. allenii and C. villosissimus are mainly isolated by their microhabitats provides a first step toward understanding the mechanisms of adaptation and speciation in the tropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf canopy carbon exchange processes, such as photosynthesis and respiration, are substantial components of the global carbon cycle. Climate models base their simulations of photosynthesis and respiration on an empirical understanding of the underlying biochemical processes, and the responses of those processes to environmental drivers. As such, data spanning large spatial scales are needed to evaluate and parameterize these models. Here, we present data on four important biochemical parameters defining leaf carbon exchange processes from 626 individuals of 98 species at 12 North and Central American sites spanning ~53° of latitude. The four parameters are the maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylation ( Vcmax), the maximum rate of electron transport for the regeneration of Ribulose-1,5,-bisphosphate ( Jmax), the maximum rate of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase carboxylation ( Vpmax), and leaf dark respiration ( Rd). The raw net photosynthesis by intercellular CO2 ( A/C i) data used to calculate Vcmax, Jmax, and Vpmax rates are also presented. Data were gathered on the same leaf of each individual (one leaf per individual), allowing for the examination of each parameter relative to others. Additionally, the data set contains a number of covariates for the plants measured. Covariate data include (1) leaf-level traits (leaf mass, leaf area, leaf nitrogen and carbon content, predawn leaf water potential), (2) plant-level traits (plant height for herbaceous individuals and diameter at breast height for trees), (3) soil moisture at the time of measurement, (4) air temperature from nearby weather stations for the day of measurement and each of the 90 d prior to measurement, and (5) climate data (growing season mean temperature, precipitation, photosynthetically active radiation, vapor pressure deficit, and aridity index). We hope that the data will be useful for obtaining greater understanding of the abiotic and biotic determinants of these important biochemical parameters and for evaluating and improving large-scale models of leaf carbon exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]