From chemical to population ecology: infochemical use in an evolutionary context

TY - JOUR

T1 - From chemical to population ecology: infochemical use in an evolutionary context

AU - Vet, L.E.M.

N1 - Reporting year: 1999 Metis note: 13705;article; knaw:99

PY - 1999

Y1 - 1999

N2 - The marriage of chemistry with ecology has been a productive one, providing a wealth of examples of how chemicals play important roles in the loves and lives of living organisms. At first the marriage may have been a simple and monogamous one with the major scientific aim of making proximate analyses of chemically mediated, individual level interactions. But times have changed and chemical ecology is broadening, embracing different approaches and disciplines. There is, for example, increasing appreciation of variability in the systems under study and an increase in evolutionary thinking. Another promising development is greater recognition of the potential importance of chemically mediated interactions for population dynamics and for structuring communities and species coexistence. The latter is an utterly underexplored area in chemical ecology. The field of chemical ecology of insect parasitoids shows some of these promising developments. Responses of parasitoids to infochemicals are increasingly studied with an integrated approach of mechanism and function. This integration of how and why questions significantly enhances the evolutionary and ecological understanding of stimulus–response patterns. The future challenge in chemical ecology is to demonstrate how chemically mediated interactions steer ecological and evolutionary processes at all levels of ecological organization. To reach this goal there is a need for interdisciplinary collaboration among chemists and ecologists working at different levels of organization and with different approaches, with other disciplines as partners.

AB - The marriage of chemistry with ecology has been a productive one, providing a wealth of examples of how chemicals play important roles in the loves and lives of living organisms. At first the marriage may have been a simple and monogamous one with the major scientific aim of making proximate analyses of chemically mediated, individual level interactions. But times have changed and chemical ecology is broadening, embracing different approaches and disciplines. There is, for example, increasing appreciation of variability in the systems under study and an increase in evolutionary thinking. Another promising development is greater recognition of the potential importance of chemically mediated interactions for population dynamics and for structuring communities and species coexistence. The latter is an utterly underexplored area in chemical ecology. The field of chemical ecology of insect parasitoids shows some of these promising developments. Responses of parasitoids to infochemicals are increasingly studied with an integrated approach of mechanism and function. This integration of how and why questions significantly enhances the evolutionary and ecological understanding of stimulus–response patterns. The future challenge in chemical ecology is to demonstrate how chemically mediated interactions steer ecological and evolutionary processes at all levels of ecological organization. To reach this goal there is a need for interdisciplinary collaboration among chemists and ecologists working at different levels of organization and with different approaches, with other disciplines as partners.

U2 - 10.1023/A:1020833015559

DO - 10.1023/A:1020833015559

M3 - Article

SN - 0098-0331

VL - 25

SP - 31

EP - 49

JO - Journal of Chemical Ecology

JF - Journal of Chemical Ecology

IS - 1

ER -