(2nd Place) Does landscape simplification result in differential selection on wild plant traits by altering insect interactions?

The conversion of natural landscapes to agriculture is a leading cause of biodiversity loss worldwide. However, for organisms that are not extirpated by this land use change, agricultural landscapes likely represent a novel selective environment characterized by a unique suite of interactors. As sessile organisms that can rapidly adapt to changing conditions, plants provide a useful system for studying local adaptation. There is growing evidence that both pollinator and herbivore populations are altered in agricultural landscapes, imposing conflicting pressure on plants to simultaneously attract pollinators while also deterring herbivores. To evaluate patterns of selection in agricultural vs natural landscapes, we established common garden plots of Barbarea vulgaris at three sites dominated by natural land cover and three sites dominated by agricultural land cover. B. vulgaris is an ideal model system for this study as it grows ubiquitously in both natural and highly modified landscapes. At each site we planted 180 F2 plants with segregated trait expression. We measured trait expression related to both herbivore defense and pollinator attraction and regressed these phenotypes against total plant fitness to test (i) the relative importance of pollinators and herbivores as selective agents of plant traits across agricultural and natural landscapes, and (ii) which traits are most adaptive in each landscape type. Understanding how shifts in the insect community may be altering selection on plant traits will provide insight into the adaptive potential of wild plant communities and the relative importance of insects for plant trait evolution in our currently shifting agricultural landscapes.