Sociology

Redundancy (engineering)

Population

Evolutionary biology

Biology

Operating system

Machine learning

Demography

Paleontology

Ecology

Anthropology

Diversity (politics)

Context (archaeology)

Functional diversity

Computer science

Computational biology

Natural selection

Fitness landscape

Selection (genetic algorithm)

Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics

Ever since the first plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) were isolated and identified, questions about their ecological functions and diversity have been raised. Recent advances in analytical chemistry and complex data computation, as well as progress in chemical ecology from mechanistic to functional and evolutionary questions, open a new box of hypotheses. Addressing these hypotheses includes the measurement of complex traits, such as chemodiversity, in a context-dependent manner and allows for a deeper understanding of the multifunctionality and functional redundancy of PSMs. Here we review a hypothesis framework that addresses PSM diversity on multiple ecological levels (α, β, and γ chemodiversity), its variation in space and time, and the potential agents of natural selection. We use the concept of chemical information transfer as mediator of antagonistic and mutualistic interaction to interpret functional and microevolutionary studies and create a hypothesis framework for understanding chemodiversity as a factor driving ecological processes.

Plant Secondary Metabolite Diversity and Species Interactions