Plant-Animal Communication
H. Martin Schaefer and Graeme D. Ruxton
Abstract
Communication is an essential factor underpinning the interactions between species and the structure of their communities. Plant–animal interactions are particularly diverse due to the complex nature of their mutualistic and antagonistic relationships. However the evolution of communication and the underlying mechanisms responsible remain poorly understood. This book is a timely summary of the latest research and ideas on the ecological and evolutionary foundations of communication between plants and animals, including discussions of fundamental concepts such as deception, reliability, and cam ... More
Communication is an essential factor underpinning the interactions between species and the structure of their communities. Plant–animal interactions are particularly diverse due to the complex nature of their mutualistic and antagonistic relationships. However the evolution of communication and the underlying mechanisms responsible remain poorly understood. This book is a timely summary of the latest research and ideas on the ecological and evolutionary foundations of communication between plants and animals, including discussions of fundamental concepts such as deception, reliability, and camouflage. It introduces how the sensory world of animals shapes the various modes of communication employed, laying out the basics of vision, scent, acoustic, and gustatory communication. Subsequent chapters discuss how plants communicate in these sensory modes to attract animals to facilitate seed dispersal, pollination, and carnivory, and how they communicate to defend themselves against herbivores. Potential avenues for productive theoretical and empirical research are clearly identified, and suggestions for novel empirical approaches to the study of communication in general are outlined.
Keywords:
plant–animal interactions,
communication,
deception,
reliability,
camouflage,
sensory world,
animals,
vision,
scent,
gustatory communication
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199563609 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199563609.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
H. Martin Schaefer, author
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Animal Ecology, University of Freiburg, Germany
Graeme D. Ruxton, author
University of Glasgow, UK
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