Section 1: Plant Volatiles – complexity of chemical
messages.- 1. Temporal dynamics of
plant volatiles: mechanistic bases and functional consequences.- 2. Environmental impacts
on plant volatile emission.- 3. Impacts of induction
of plant volatiles by individual and multiple stressors across multiple trophic
levels.- 4. Measuring rapid
changes in plant volatiles at different spatial levels.- Section 2: Ecology of
volatile mediated communication processes.- 5. Who’s listening to
talking plants?.- 6. Ecological role of odour
diversity.- 7. Neighbour recognition
through volatile-mediated interactions.- 8. Calling in the dark:
The role of volatiles for communication in the rhizosphere.- 9. Complexity of plant
volatile-mediated interactions beyond the third trophic level.- 10. On the air:
Broadcasting and reception of volatile messages in brood-site pollination
mutualisms.- 11. Multifunctional and
diverse floral scents mediate biotic interactions embedded in communities.- Section 3: Mechanisms
of volatile detection by plants.- 12. Plant
electrophysiology – early stages of the plant response to chemical signals.- 13. Uptake and conversion
of volatile compounds in plant-plant communication.- Section 4 : Synthesis and future
directions.- 14. Synthesis and future
directions for deciphering plant chemical language.
This book provides an overview
of the intricacies of plant communication via volatile chemicals. Plants
produce an extraordinarily vast array of chemicals, which provide community
members with detailed information about the producer’s identity, physiology and
phenology. Volatile organic chemicals, either as individual compounds or complex
chemical blends, are a communication medium operating between plants and any
organism able to detect the compounds and respond. The ecological and
evolutionary origins of particular interactions between plants and the greater
community have been, and will continue to be, strenuously debated. However, it
is clear that chemicals, and particularly volatile chemicals, constitute a
medium akin to a linguistic tool. As well as possessing a rich chemical
vocabulary, plants are known to detect and respond to chemical cues.
These cues can originate from neighbouring plants, or other associated
community members. This book begins with chapters on the complexity of chemical
messages, provides a broad perspective on a range of ecological interactions
mediated by volatile chemicals, and extends to cutting edge developments on the
detection of chemicals by plants.