A shift from phenol to silica?based leaf defences during long?term soil and ecosystem development

The resource availability hypothesis predicts that plants adapted to infertile soils have high levels of anti-herbivore leaf defences. This has been mostly explored for secondary metabolites such as phenolics, whereas it remains underexplored silica-based We determined concentrations total phenols and silicon (Si) in growing along the 2-million-year Jurien Bay chronosequence, exhibiting an extreme gradient soil fertility. found nitrogen (N) limitation on young led a greater expression phenol-based defences, old, phosphorus (P)-impoverished favoured Both defence types were negatively correlated at community individual species level. Our results suggest trade-off among these two strategies based strength type nutrient limitation, thereby opening up new perspectives plant research. study also highlights importance defences under low P supply.