New Synthesis: Exploring the Chemical Links in Ecological Food Webs

J Chem Ecol (2012) 38:441 DOI 10.1007/s10886-012-0128-4 COMMENTARY New Synthesis: Exploring the Chemical Links in Ecological Food Webs R. A. Raguso Published online: 5 May 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 For the past year, contributors to New Synthesis have explored conceptual chemistry has strong predictive power in the food web that stretches across and technological frontiers that promise to stretch the field of Chemical a field of Brussels sprouts. Ecology in new directions. One such opportunity is the integration of At a more complex (floral marketplace) scale, Junker and colleagues chemical signals and chemoreception into community ecology. Studies of (2010) studied a network of 35 flowering plant species and 164 flower- “food web” networks have revealed the disproportionate importance of visiting insect species in a German meadow. Most observed links deviated “keystone” species, the resiliency of certain interactions (e.g., generalized significantly from null model expectations, either more frequently (“hot herbivores or pollinators with their hosts) to species turnover or disturbance, links”)orlessfrequently (“cold links”) than expected, and several of these and the context dependence of network structure, with direct impacts on links were investigated using behavioral choice assays, through the use of a resource management and conservation as well as ecological theory. field-portable olfactometer. Interestingly, hot links between specific polli- At first glance, there would appear tobelittlecommongroundbetween nators and flowers usually coincided with significant olfactory preference chemical and community ecology, as scientists in these fields tend to employ (either innate or learned) for that flower’s scent, and the few testable...