Tambarikosy

This post was originally published under the title "Grass Roots Biology" in the December 2015 issue of  The Biologist , the Royal Society of Biology's magazine. If you're a member of the RSB you can also view the article on their website here . The images are not those used by the RSB nor are they mine, the copyright belongs to their credited owners and most are from ARKive.org. Neptune grass ( Posidonia oceanica ) meadow in the Mediterranean © M. San Felix, from  l ivescience.com Grass Roots Biology Home to myriad species and acting as massive carbon sinks, seagrass meadows are key marine habitats – but they are disappearing fast, reports Xaali O'Reilly Berkeley The Biologist  62(6) p16-19 Seagrasses are a group of flowering plants adapted to live in salt water. They grow, flower and pollinate completely submerged in estuaries and along shallow coastal waters around the globe, both in temperate and tropical environments. Although they physi...

Plant-insect interactions constitute fundamental component communities of terrestrial ecosystems [1] [2] . The different types of plant-insect associations in nature are thought to have driven both plant and insect radiation [3] . The advantages of animal-mediated pollination have led to the evolution and diversification of specialist mutualisms between, for instance, plants and birds (e.g. [4] ), while the need for protection has spawned mutualisms between various tropical tree species and ants [5] [6] [7] . Herbivory, on the other hand, has led to an arm’s race of plant defence mechanisms and insect attack and feeding habits [3] . An ever-increasing number of studies demonstrate the importance of biotic interactions in driving evolutionary change, but considerably fewer reveal the mechanisms by which this occurs in real-time [8] [9] . Monarch caterpillar ( Danaus plexippus ) on milkweed ( Asclepias syriaca ). Credit: Kailen Mooney