Agricultural landscape simplification affects wild plant fitness indirectly through herbivore-mediated changes in floral display

As natural landscapes are modified and converted into simplified agricultural landscapes, the community composition and interactions of organisms persisting in these modified landscapes are altered. While many studies examine the consequences of these changing interactions for crops, few have evaluated the effects on wild plants. Here, we examine how pollinator and herbivore interactions affect fitness for wild resident and phytometer plants at sites along a landscape gradient ranging from natural to highly simplified. We tested the direct and indirect effects of landscape composition on plant traits and fitness mediated by insect interactions. For phytometer plants exposed to herbivores, we found that greater landscape complexity corresponded with elevated herbivore damage, which reduced total flower production but increased individual flower size. Though larger flowers increased pollination, the reduction in flowers ultimately reduced plant fitness. Herbivory was also higher in comple..., This study was conducted in upstate NY, USA. Experimental sites were in field margins of farms that were selected along a gradient ranging from landscapes dominated by natural land cover to landscapes dominated by agriculture. Phenotypic data, pollinator visitation, herbivore damage, and plant fitness was measured on Barbarea vulgaris plants existing naturally at each site (resident plants) and on sentinel plants grown from a single parent plant (phytometer plants). Phytometer plants provide a useful tool for evaluating changing interactions for wild plants by minimizing the contribution of adaptive trait variation which, in resident populations, may be compensating for landscape mediated changes in insect interactions. To analyze the data collected we examined how insect interactions and plant traits varied along the landscape gradient and how these variables interacted using structural equation models. , , # Agricultural landscape simplification affects wild plant fitness indirectly through herbivore-mediated changes in floral display

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.905qfttt6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.905qfttt6)

# Files

**Phytometer_Plants**: This data file has a single line for each phytometer plant in the experiment. See data included in this file below.

**Resident_Plants**: This data file has a single line for each resident plant in the experiment. See data included in this file below.

**Landscape**: This data file includes all the landscape data used to evaluate landscape composition at each site across three scales. Landscape data was gathered from the USDA Cropland Data Layer and summarized into the categories agriculture, natural (non-forested), and pasture. See the full distribution of landscape categories below.

**Collected_Pollinators**: This data file includes all the insects collected by sweep netting a *B. vuglaris* patch neighboring the focal resident patch. Each i...

随着自然景观被改造并转化为集约化农业景观，存续于这类改造后景观中的生物群落组成及种间互作均发生改变。现有大量研究聚焦于这类互作变化对农作物的影响，但鲜有研究评估其对野生植物的效应。本研究依托从自然到高度简化的景观梯度样地，探究传粉者与植食者的互作如何影响野生本地植物（resident plants）和标准试验植物（phytometer plants）的适合度。我们检验了景观组成通过昆虫互作介导的对植物性状与适合度的直接与间接效应。对于暴露于植食者的标准试验植物（phytometer plants），我们发现景观复杂度越高，植食性损伤程度越高；该损伤会降低总花产量，但会增大单花尺寸。尽管更大的花可提升传粉效率，但花量的减少最终会降低植物适合度。植食作用在……（原文此处截断）。本研究在美国纽约州北部开展。

试验样地设置于农场田埂，选取的样地梯度覆盖了以自然土地覆被为主到以农业用地为主的各类景观。我们在每个样地天然生长的欧山芥（Barbarea vulgaris）以及由单一亲本培育的标准试验植物（phytometer plants）上，测量了表型数据、传粉者访花频次、植食损伤程度与植物适合度。

标准试验植物（phytometer plants）可通过最小化适应性性状变异的影响，成为评估野生植物互作变化的有效工具——本地种群的适应性性状变异可能会抵消景观介导的昆虫互作变化。为分析收集到的数据，我们采用结构方程模型（structural equation models）探究了昆虫互作与植物性状沿景观梯度的变化规律，以及这些变量间的相互作用。

# 农业景观简化通过植食者介导的花部展示变化间接影响野生植物适合度
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.905qfttt6

# 数据集文件
**Phytometer_Plants**：该数据文件为试验中每一株标准试验植物（phytometer plants）建立单行记录。详见下文该文件包含的数据内容。
**Resident_Plants**：该数据文件为试验中每一株本地野生植物（resident plants）建立单行记录。详见下文该文件包含的数据内容。
**Landscape**：该数据文件包含所有用于评估各站点三个尺度下景观组成的景观数据。景观数据源自美国农业部农田数据层（USDA Cropland Data Layer），并被汇总为农业用地、自然（非林地）与牧场三类。详见下文景观类别的完整分布情况。
**Collected_Pollinators**：该数据文件包含通过扫网法采集自目标野生斑块邻近的欧山芥（Barbarea vulgaris）斑块的所有昆虫样本。每条记录对应……（原文此处截断）