Density-dependent warning coloration

Article Abstract:

Predators learn more quickly to avoid unpalatable prey when it is conspicuous than when it is cryptic. Selection would be expected to favour unpalatable cryptic prey at low local densities and conspicuous at high local densities. Density-dependent warning coloration was found to occur in Schistocera emarginata grasshoppers. Colouration phenotypic plasticity could have facilitated evolution of aposematism in insects. Density-dependent colour polymorphism could reduce initial costs of conspicuousness among organisms with the appropriate genotype, once unpalatability is achieved.

Research, Observations, Predation (Biology), Aposematism, Locusts, Locusts (Insects)

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Preferential use of organic nitrogen for growth by a non-mycorrhizal arctic sedge

Article Abstract:

Eriophorum vaginatum, a species of sedge, has been identified as the only known non-mycorrhizal vascular plant that obtains all its nitrogen from amino acids in the soil. This adaptation allows Eriophorum to thrive in the nitrogen-restricted soils of the circumpolar Arctic where it is the most abundant plant in the moist tundra regions. Laboratory work confirmed that Eriophorum can take in amino acids directly and use the nitrogen from them for growth, whereas a more typical vascular plant such as the barley species Hordeum vulgare cannot use amino acids in this way.

Environmental aspects, Growth, Botany, Arctic, Nitrogen (Chemical element), Nitrogen, Cyperaceae, Arctic Regions

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