PLANT GENETICS AFFECTS ARTHROPOD COMMUNITY RICHNESS AND COMPOSITION: EVIDENCE FROM A SYNTHETIC EUCALYPT HYBRID POPULATION

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Abstract
To examine how genetic variation in a plant population affects arthropod community richness and composition, we quantified the arthropod communities on a synthetic population of Eucalyptus amygdalina, E. risdonii, and their F1 and advanced-generation hybrids. Five major patterns emerged. First, the pure species and hybrid populations supported significantly different communities. Second, species richness was significantly greatest on hybrids (F1 > F2 > E. amygdalina > E. risdonii). These results are similar to those from a wild population of the same species and represent the first case in which both synthetic and wild population studies confirm a genetic component to community structure. Hybrids also acted as centers of biodiversity by accumulating both the common and specialist taxa of both parental species (100% in the wild and 80% in the synthetic population). Third, species richness was significantly greater on F1s than the single F2 family, suggesting that the increased insect abundance on ...