Chemical Innovation by Ice Cream Bean Relatives
Technology Networks | March 15, 2019
The back and forth relationship between insects and their food plants may drive tropical biodiversity evolution according to work on Barro Colorado Island’s 50 hectare plot. Constant pressure from hungry insects forces plants to innovate: producing new chemicals to protect themselves. This is the newest and best explanation for tropical diversity according to results from a study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Barro Colorado Island Research Station in Panama published March 14 in Science magazine.