Intraspecific chemical variation of Tanacetum vulgare affects plant growth and reproductive traits in field plant communities

The study investigated the impact of intraspecific plant chemodiversity on plant
growth and reproductive traits at both the plant and plot levels. It also aimed to under-
stand how chemodiversity at stand level affects ecosystem functioning and plant – plant
interactions.
• We describe a biodiversity experiment in which we manipulated intraspecific plant
chemodiversity at the plot level using six different chemotypes of common tansy
(Tanacetum vulgare L., Asteraceae). We tested the effects of chemotype identity and
plot-level chemotype richness on plant growth and reproductive traits and plot-level
headspace emissions.
• The study found that plant chemotypes differed in growth and reproductive traits and
that traits were affected by the chemotype richness of the plots. Although morphologi-
cal differences among chemotypes became less pronounced over time, reproductive
phenology patterns persisted. Plot-level trait means were also affected by the presence
or absence of certain chemotypes in a plot, and the direction of the effect depended on
the specific chemotype. However, chemotype richness did not lead to overyielding
effects. Lastly, chemotype blends released from plant communities were neither richer
nor more diverse with increasing plot-level chemotype richness, but became more dis-
similar as they became more dissimilar in their leaf terpenoid profiles.
• We found that intraspecific plant chemodiversity is crucial in plant – plant interactions.
We also found that the effects of chemodiversity on plant growth and reproductive
traits were complex and varied depending on the chemotype richness of the plots. This
long-term field experiment will allow further investigation into plant – insect interac-
tions and insect community assembly in response to intraspecific chemodiversity.

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