From the leaf to the community: distinct dimensions of phytochemical diversity shape plant-insect interactions within and among individual plants

Plant secondary chemistry is known to be an important driver of plant-insect community structure across ecological scales. Recently, the concept of phytochemical diversity has been introduced to help describe variation in plant secondary chemistry and explain how this variation affects community structure. Previous studies show that phytochemical diversity among individuals and species results in phytochemical mosaics, known as the phytochemical landscape. However, plant traits can vary at finer scales, such as within individuals, and even a single host plant may be perceived as an entire phytochemical landscape by an interacting insect. Using the neotropical shrub Piper amalago, we tested and compared how herbivory, caterpillar biodiversity and plant-herbivore network structure are affected by the compositional (number and concentration of compounds) and structural (diversity of distinct chemical structures) dimensions of phytochemical diversity. We analysed variation among individu...植物次生化学（plant secondary chemistry）被证实是跨生态尺度上调控植物-昆虫群落结构的关键驱动因子。近年来，学界提出了植物化学多样性（phytochemical diversity）这一概念，用以刻画植物次生化学组成的变异，并阐释该变异对群落结构的影响机制。既往研究表明，物种乃至个体间的植物化学多样性会形成植物化学镶嵌体，即所谓的植物化学景观（phytochemical landscape）。然而，植物性状可在更精细的尺度上产生变异，例如个体内部；甚至单株宿主植物，都可能被与之发生互作的昆虫视作完整的植物化学景观。 本研究以新热带灌木胡椒属物种*Piper amalago*为研究对象，针对植物化学多样性的两个维度——组成维度（化合物的种类与浓度）与结构维度（不同化学结构的多样性），检验并比较了其对植食作用、毛虫生物多样性以及植物-植食者网络结构的影响。本研究分析了个体间的变异……