Phyllis Coley

Last updated
Phyllis Coley
Alma mater Hampshire College, University of Chicago
Scientific career
FieldsBiology
Institutions University of Utah, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Doctoral advisor Robin B. Foster
Website coley.biology.utah.edu/coley.html

Phyllis Dewing Coley is a Biology professor currently teaching at the University of Utah. In 1996 she received the University's Distinguished Research Award. She has been a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute since 1995. [1] In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. [2]

Contents

In 1974, she completed her B.A. at Hampshire College. Her M.A. and doctorate were completed at the University of Chicago by studying resource availability theory, including the effects of leaf age and plant life history patterns on herbivory, and patterns of plant defenses. [3]

Throughout her academic career, Coley has received multiple honors and awards. She received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Advancement Award in 1994 [4] and in 2002 was named an ISI highly cited researcher in Ecology/Environment. [5] Since 2006, Coley has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). [6]

Research interests

Coley's research interests include bioprospecting and plant defenses and herbivory in tropical forests. Additional emphasis of research includes the study of conservation of tropical rainforests and how tropical herbivores are regulated by the third trophic level [3]

Current attentions in her research are focused on chemical defenses and linking these to other plant traits, within a phylogenetic context. This research is primarily based on the tropical plants part of the family Fabaceae as a model to understand how herbivores may be driving rapid evolution of defenses and how this might contribute to community assembly and speciation in the genus [3]

Her research has implications in understanding multi-species comparisons and interactions in tropical communities.

Selected publications

Coley, P.D. 1980. Effects of leaf age and plant life history patterns on herbivory. Nature 284:545-546.

Coley, P.D. 1982. Rates of herbivory on different tropical trees. Pages 123–132. In: The Ecology of a Tropical Forest: Seasonal Rhythms and Long-term Changes, E.G. Leigh, A.S. Rand and D.M. Windsor (eds), Smithsonian Press.

Coley, P.D. 1983. Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in a lowland tropical forest. Ecological Monographs 53:209-233.

Coley, P.D. 1983. Intra-specific variation in herbivory on two tropical tree species. Ecology 64:426-433.

Putz, F.E., P.D. Coley, K. Lu, A. Montalvo and A. Aillelo. 1983. Uprooting and snapping of trees: Structural determinants and ecological consequences. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 13:1011-1020.

Angehr, G., P.D. Coley, and A. Worthington. 1984. Guía de los Árboles Comunes del Parque Nacional Soberanía, Panamá. Smithsonian Institution Press.

Coley, P.D., J.P. Bryant, F.S. Chapin, III. 1985. Resource availability and plant anti-herbivore defense. Science 230:895-899.

Coley, P.D. 1986. Costs and benefits of defense by tannins in a neo-tropical tree. Oecologia 70:238-241.

Salo, J., R. Kalliola, I. Hakkinen, Y. Makinen, P. Niemela, M. Puhakka, and P.D. Coley. 1986. River dynamics and diversity of Amazon lowland forest. Nature 322:254-258.

Coley, P.D. 1987. Patrones en las defensas de las plantas: ¿Porque los herbivoros prefrieren ciertas especies?. Revista de Biología Tropical 35 (suppl):251-263.

Bazzaz, F.A., N. Chiariello, P.D. Coley and L.F. Pitelka. 1987. Allocating resources to reproduction and defense. Bioscience 37:58-67.

Coley, P.D. 1987. Species differences in leaf defenses of tropical trees. Pages 30–35. In: Fourth Annual Wildland Shrup Symposium on Plant-Herbivore Interactions. F.D. Provenza and J. Flinders (eds).

Dirzo, R. F.S. Chapin, P.D. Coley, D.H. Janzen, R. Marquis, L. McHargue, J Nunez-Farfan and K Oyama. 1987. Problemas importantes en el estudio de interacciones planta-herbivoro en los bosques tropicales. Revista de Biología Tropical 35 (suppl):207-211.

Coley, P.D. 1987. Interspecific variation in plant anti-herbivore properties: The role of habitat quality and rate of disturbance. New Phytologist 106 (suppl):251-263.

Coley, P.D. 1988. Effects of plant growth rate and leaf lifetime on the amount and type of anti-herbivore defense. Oecologia 74:531-536.

Coley, P.D. and T.M. Aide. 1989. Red coloration of tropical young leaves: A possible antifungal defense. Journal of Tropical Ecology 5:293-300.

Jing, S.W. and P.D. Coley. 1990. Dioecy and herbivory: the effect of growth rate on plant defense in Acer negundo. Oikos 58:369-377.

Coley, P.D. and T.M. Aide. 1991. Comparison of herbivory and plant defenses in temperate and tropical broad-leaved forests. Pages 25–49. In: Plant-Animal Interactions: Evolutionary Ecology in Tropical and Temperate Regions, edited by PW Price, TM Lewinsohn, GW Fernandes and WW Benson, Wiley & Sons, NY.

Kursar, T. A. and P. D. Coley. 1991. Nitrogen content and expansion rate of young leaves of rainforest species: Implications for herbivory. Biotropica 23:141-150.

Kursar, T. A. and P. D. Coley. 1992. Delayed development of the photosynthetic apparatus in tropical rainforest species. Functional Ecology 6:411-422.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbivore</span> Organism that eats mostly or exclusively plant material

A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding. Horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainforest</span> Type of forest with high rainfall

Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, but other types have been described.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evergreen</span> Plant that has leaves in all seasons

In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecosystem ecology</span> Study of living and non-living components of ecosystems and their interactions

Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components such as chemicals, bedrock, soil, plants, and animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant defense against herbivory</span> Plants defenses against being eaten

Plant defense against herbivory or host-plant resistance (HPR) is a range of adaptations evolved by plants which improve their survival and reproduction by reducing the impact of herbivores. Plants can sense being touched, and they can use several strategies to defend against damage caused by herbivores. Many plants produce secondary metabolites, known as allelochemicals, that influence the behavior, growth, or survival of herbivores. These chemical defenses can act as repellents or toxins to herbivores or reduce plant digestibility. Another defensive strategy of plants is changing their attractiveness. To prevent overconsumption by large herbivores, plants alter their appearance by changing their size or quality, reducing the rate at which they are consumed.

Herbivores are dependent on plants for food, and have coevolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses against herbivory. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to "offensive traits" and consist of those traits that allow for increased feeding and use of a host. Plants, on the other hand, protect their resources for use in growth and reproduction, by limiting the ability of herbivores to eat them. Relationships between herbivores and their host plants often results in reciprocal evolutionary change. When a herbivore eats a plant it selects for plants that can mount a defensive response, whether the response is incorporated biochemically or physically, or induced as a counterattack. In cases where this relationship demonstrates "specificity", and "reciprocity", the species are thought to have coevolved. The escape and radiation mechanisms for coevolution, presents the idea that adaptations in herbivores and their host plants, has been the driving force behind speciation. The coevolution that occurs between plants and herbivores that ultimately results in the speciation of both can be further explained by the Red Queen hypothesis. This hypothesis states that competitive success and failure evolve back and forth through organizational learning. The act of an organism facing competition with another organism ultimately leads to an increase in the organism's performance due to selection. This increase in competitive success then forces the competing organism to increase its performance through selection as well, thus creating an "arms race" between the two species. Herbivores evolve due to plant defenses because plants must increase their competitive performance first due to herbivore competitive success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seed predation</span> Feeding on seeds as a main or exclusive food source

Seed predation, often referred to as granivory, is a type of plant-animal interaction in which granivores feed on the seeds of plants as a main or exclusive food source, in many cases leaving the seeds damaged and not viable. Granivores are found across many families of vertebrates as well as invertebrates ; thus, seed predation occurs in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems. Seed predation is commonly divided into two distinctive temporal categories, pre-dispersal and post-dispersal predation, which affect the fitness of the parental plant and the dispersed offspring, respectively. Mitigating pre- and post-dispersal predation may involve different strategies. To counter seed predation, plants have evolved both physical defenses and chemical defenses. However, as plants have evolved seed defenses, seed predators have adapted to plant defenses. Thus, many interesting examples of coevolution arise from this dynamic relationship.

Plants and herbivores have co-evolved together for 350 million years. Plants have evolved many defense mechanisms against insect herbivory. Such defenses can be broadly classified into two categories: (1) permanent, constitutive defenses, and (2) temporary, inducible defenses. Both types are achieved through similar means but differ in that constitutive defenses are present before an herbivore attacks, while induced defenses are activated only when attacks occur. In addition to constitutive defenses, initiation of specific defense responses to herbivory is an important strategy for plant persistence and survival.

Evan Siemann is a professor in the Biosciences Department at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He received his AB from Cornell University in 1990 and his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1997. The focus of his research has been investigating how local environmental factors interact with post-invasion adaptation to determine the likelihood and severity of Chinese tallow tree invasions into East Texas coastal prairie, mesic forests, and floodplain forests. The results of this research have been highlighted in Science Daily, Environmental News Service, and The Sciences. He has also recently begun to explore the ecosystem level impacts of exotic tree invasions into coastal prairies. His research group is also engaged in a number of applied research projects related to controlling exotic plant and animal invasions into Texas ecosystems.

The Janzen–Connell hypothesis is a widely accepted explanation for the maintenance of tree species biodiversity in tropical rainforests. It was published independently in the early 1970s by Daniel Janzen and Joseph Connell. According to their hypothesis, host-specific herbivores, pathogens, or other natural enemies make the areas near a parent tree inhospitable for the survival of seedlings. These natural enemies are referred to as 'distance-responsive predators' if they kill seeds or seedlings near the parent tree, or 'density-dependent predators' if they kill seeds or seedlings where they are most abundant. Such predators can prevent any one species from dominating the landscape, because if that species is too common, there will be few safe places for its seedlings to survive. However, because the predators are host-specific, they will not harm other tree species. As a result, if a species becomes very rare, then more predator-free areas will become available, giving that species' seedlings a competitive advantage. This negative feedback allows the tree species to coexist, and can be classified as a stabilizing mechanism.

Tolerance is the ability of plants to mitigate the negative fitness effects caused by herbivory. It is one of the general plant defense strategies against herbivores, the other being resistance, which is the ability of plants to prevent damage. Plant defense strategies play important roles in the survival of plants as they are fed upon by many different types of herbivores, especially insects, which may impose negative fitness effects. Damage can occur in almost any part of the plants, including the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds. In response to herbivory, plants have evolved a wide variety of defense mechanisms and although relatively less studied than resistance strategies, tolerance traits play a major role in plant defense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant use of endophytic fungi in defense</span>

Plant use of endophytic fungi in defense occurs when endophytic fungi, which live symbiotically with the majority of plants by entering their cells, are utilized as an indirect defense against herbivores. In exchange for carbohydrate energy resources, the fungus provides benefits to the plant which can include increased water or nutrient uptake and protection from phytophagous insects, birds or mammals. Once associated, the fungi alter nutrient content of the plant and enhance or begin production of secondary metabolites. The change in chemical composition acts to deter herbivory by insects, grazing by ungulates and/or oviposition by adult insects. Endophyte-mediated defense can also be effective against pathogens and non-herbivory damage.

Monodominance is an ecological condition in which more than 60% of the tree canopy comprises a single species of tree. Monodominant forests are quite common under conditions of extra-tropical climate types. Although monodominance is studied across different regions, most research focuses on the many prominent species in tropical forests. Connel and Lowman, originally called it single-dominance. Conventional explanations of biodiversity in tropical forests in the decades prior to Connel and Lowman's work either ignored monodominance entirely or predicted that it would not exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community genetics</span>

Community genetics is a recently emerged field in biology that fuses elements of community ecology, evolutionary biology, and molecular and quantitative genetics. Antonovics first articulated the vision for such a field, and Whitham et al. formalized its definition as “The study of the genetic interactions that occur between species and their abiotic environment in complex communities.” The field aims to bridge the gaps in the study of evolution and ecology, within the multivariate community context that ecological and evolutionary phenomena are embedded within. The documentary movie A Thousand Invisible Cords provides an introduction to the field and its implications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escape and radiate coevolution</span>

Escape and radiate coevolution is a hypothesis proposing that a coevolutionary 'arms-race' between primary producers and their consumers contributes to the diversification of species by accelerating speciation rates. The hypothesized process involves the evolution of novel defenses in the host, allowing it to "escape" and then "radiate" into differing species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light gap</span> Ecological terminology

In ecology, a light gap is a break in forest canopy or similar barrier that allows young plants to grow where they would be otherwise inhibited by the lack of light reaching the seedbed. Light gaps form predominantly when a tree falls, and thus produces an opening in the forest canopy. Light gaps are important for maintaining diversity in species-rich ecosystems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leaf flushing</span>

Leaf flushing or leaf out is the production of a flush of new leaves typically produced simultaneously on all branches of a bare plant or tree. Young leaves often have less chlorophyll and the leaf flush may be white or red, the latter due to presence of pigments, particularly anthocyanins. Leaf flushing succeeds leaf fall, and is delayed by winter in the temperate zone or by extreme dryness in the tropics. Leaf fall and leaf flushing in tropical deciduous forests can overlap in some species, called leaf-exchanging species, producing new leaves during the same period when old leaves are shed or almost immediately after. Leaf-flushing may be synchronized among trees of a single species or even across species in an area. In the seasonal tropics, leaf flushing phenology may be influenced by herbivory and water stress.

Rodolfo Dirzo is a professor, conservationist, and tropical ecologist. He is a Bing Professor in environmental science at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. His research interests mainly focus on plant-animal interactions, evolutionary ecology, and defaunation in the tropics of Latin America, Africa, and the Central Pacific. He was a member of the Committee on A Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards, co-authoring the framework in 2012, and continues to educate local communities and young people about science and environmental issues. 

<i>Azteca muelleri</i> Species of ant

Azteca muelleri is a species of ant in the genus Azteca. Described by the Italian entomologist Carlo Emery in 1893, the species is native to Central and South America. It lives in colonies in the hollow trunk and branches of Cecropia trees. The specific name muelleri was given in honour of a German biologist Fritz Müller, who discovered that the small bodies at the petiole-bases of Cecropia are food bodies.

Cryptic mimicry is observed in animals as well as plants. In animals, this may involve nocturnality, camouflage, subterranean lifestyle, and mimicry. Generally, plant herbivores are visually oriented. So a mimicking plant should strongly resemble its host; this can be done through visual and/or textural change. Previous criteria for mimicry include similarity of leaf dimensions, leaf presentation, and intermodal distances between the host and mimicking plant.

References

  1. ↑ "Research Associate and Associates in Communication of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute". Archived from the original on 2010-11-07. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. ↑ http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2023-nas-election.html
  3. 1 2 3 "People - Coley". biologylabs.utah.edu. Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "Faculty Early Career Development Program | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov.
  5. ↑ "Highly Cited Researchers". Archived from the original on 26 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Phyllis D COLEY - Research - Faculty Profile - The University of Utah". faculty.utah.edu.
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