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Defensive (anti-herbivory) Coloration in Land Plants

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Simcha Lev-Yadun

    1. Biology & Environment, Univ. of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon, Israel

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  • This is the first and only book focusing on defensive plant coloration (aposematism, camouflage, mimicry and other types of defensive visual signalling and deception demonstrated by 170 colour photos). It illuminates many overlooked aspects of plant evolution and ecology

  • This book is aimed to provoke and stimulate students and scientists of plant-animal interactions to further pursue visual plant defences against herbivores. Such mechanisms can allow developing greener agricultural practices

  • This book outlines the basics of visual plant defences against herbivorous animals in order to establish this neglected area of plant evolution and ecology as an ordered branch of plant biology

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Table of contents (69 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
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  2. General Background

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 3-6

    3. Plants Are Not Sitting Ducks Waiting for Herbivores to Eat Them

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 7-8

    4. The Many Defensive Mechanisms of Plants

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 9-10

    5. No Defense Is Perfect and Defense Is Always Relative

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 11-11

    6. Operating Under Stress and Fear in the Military as a Lesson Concerning Difficulties for Herbivory in Nature. Factors That Lower the Need for Perfect Defensive Mechanisms Including Mimicry

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 13-14

    7. Evaluating Risk: The Problematic and Even Erroneous Common View of “No Damage or No Attack Equals No Risk”

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 15-16

    8. Partial Descriptions of Color Patterns in Floras and Handbooks Has Consequences on the Study of Plant Coloration Biology

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 17-18

    9. Animal Color Vision

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 19-20

    10. The Nature of Signals

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 21-22

    11. White as a Visual Signal

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 23-23

    12. Visual Signaling by Plants to Animals via Color

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 25-26

    13. Müllerian and Batesian Mimics Are Extended Phenotypes

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 27-28

  3. Gentle Defenses

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29
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    2. Camouflage

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 31-39

    3. Seed Camouflage

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 41-49

    4. Pod and Seed Camouflage in the Genus Pisum

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 51-58

    5. Defensive Functions of White Coloration in Coastal and Dune Plants

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 59-64

    6. Gloger’s Rule in Plants: The Species and Ecosystem Levels

      • Simcha Lev-Yadun
      Pages 65-67
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Keywords

About this book

This book presents visual plant defenses (camouflage, mimicry and aposematism via coloration, morphology and even movement) against herbivores. It is mainly an ideological monograph, a manifesto representing my current understanding on defensive plant coloration and related issues. The book is not the final word in anything, but rather the beginning of many things. It aims to establish visual anti-herbivory defense as an integral organ of botany, or plant science as it is commonly called today. I think that like in animals, many types of plant coloration can be explained by selection associated with the sensory/cognitive systems of herbivores and predators to reduce herbivory. It is intended to intrigue and stimulate students of botany/plant science and plant/animal interactions for a very long time. This book is tailored to a readership of biologists and naturalists of all kinds and levels, and more specifically for botanists, ecologists, evolutionists and to those interested in plant/animal interactions. It is written from the point of view of a naturalist, ecologist and evolutionary biologist that I hold, considering natural selection as the main although not the only drive for evolution. According to this perspective, factors such as chance, founder effects, genetic drift and various stochastic processes that may and do influence characters found in specific genotypes, are not comparable in their power and influence to the common outcomes of natural selection, especially manifested when very many species belonging to different plant families, with very different and separate evolutionary histories, arrive at the same adaptation, something that characterizes many of the visual patterns and proposed adaptations described and discussed in this book. Many of the discussed visual defensive mechanisms are aimed at operating before the plants are damaged, i.e., to be their first line of defense. In this respect, I think that the name of the book by Ruxton et al. (2004) "Avoiding Attack" is an excellent phrase for the assembly of the best types of defensive tactics. While discussing anti-herbivory, I do remember, study and teach physiological/developmental aspects of some of the discussed coloration patterns, and I am fully aware of the simultaneous and diverse functions of many plant characters in addition to defense.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Biology & Environment, Univ. of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon, Israel

    Simcha Lev-Yadun

About the author

Prof. Simcha Lev-Yadun

Department of Biology and Environment,
Faculty of Natural Sciences,
University of Haifa- Oranim, 
Tivon 36006 
Israel





Major Research Interests: 
The beginning of agriculture: The biology and genetics of plant‎‎ domestication.‎

The ecology and evolution of defensive vegetative coloration in plants.‎
Developmental processes in plants: meristematic activity and its ecology‎‎ and regulation, fate of apical meristems, homeosis, pattern formation.
Arabidopsis thaliana as a model for the biology of trees.‎
Biology and ecology of trees and other woody plants.‎
Palaeoecology: Dendrochronology, identification of botanical material‎‎ from archaeological excavations, reconstruction of palaeoenvironments.‎

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Defensive (anti-herbivory) Coloration in Land Plants

  • Authors: Simcha Lev-Yadun

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42096-7

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-42094-3Published: 03 November 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-82497-0Published: 23 June 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-42096-7Published: 20 October 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIII, 385

  • Number of Illustrations: 169 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Plant Sciences, Entomology, Evolutionary Biology, Behavioral Sciences, Tree Biology

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