Plant genetics affects arthropod community richness and composition: Evidence from a synthetic eucalypt hybrid population

To examine how genetic variation in a plant population affects arthropod community richness and composition, we quantified the arthropod communities on a synthetic population of Eucalyptus amygdalina, E. risdonii, and their F₁ and advanced-generation hybrids. Five major patterns emerged. First, the pure species and hybrid populations supported significantly different communities. Second, species richness was significantly greatest on hybrids (F₁ > F₂ > E. amygdalina > E. risdonii). These results are similar to those from a wild population of the same species and represent the first case in which both synthetic and wild population studies confirm a genetic component to community structure. Hybrids also acted as centers of biodiversity by accumulating both the common and specialist taxa of both parental species (100% in the wild and 80% in the synthetic population). Third, species richness was significantly greater on F₁s than the single F₂ family, suggesting that the increased insect abundance on hybrids may not be caused by the breakup of coadapted gene complexes. Fourth, specialist arthropod taxa were most likely to show a dominance response to F₁ hybrids, whereas generalist taxa exhibited a susceptible response. Fifth, in an analysis of 31 leaf terpenoids that are thought to play a role in plant defense, hybrids were generally intermediate to the parental chemotypes. Within the single F₂ family, we found significant associations between the communities of individual trees and five individual oil components, including oil yield, demonstrating that there is a genetic effect on plant defensive chemistry that, in turn, may affect community structure. These studies argue that hybridization has important community-level consequences and that the genetic variation present in hybrid zones can be used to explore the genetic-based mechanisms that structure communities.