Volatile-mediated plant–plant communication and higher-level ecological dynamics

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in general and herbivory-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) in particular are increasingly understood as major mediators of information transfer between plant tissues. Recent findings have moved the field of plant communication closer to a detailed understanding of how plants emit and perceive VOCs and seem to converge on a model that juxtaposes perception and emission mechanisms. These new mechanistic insights help to explain how plants can integrate different types of information and how environmental noise can affect the transmission of information. At the same time, ever-new functions of VOC-mediated plant-plant interactions are being revealed. Chemical information transfer between plants is now known to fundamentally affect plant organismal interactions and, additionally, population, community, and ecosystem dynamics. One of the most exciting new developments places plant-plant interactions along a behavioral continuum with an eavesdropping strategy at one end and mutually beneficial information-sharing among plants within a population at the other. Most importantly and based on recent findings as well as theoretical models, plant populations can be predicted to evolve different communication strategies depending on their interaction environment. We use recent studies from ecological model systems to illustrate this context dependency of plant communication. Moreover, we review recent key findings about the mechanisms and functions of HIPV-mediated information transfer and suggest conceptual links, such as to information theory and behavioral game theory, as valuable tools for a deeper understanding of how plant-plant communication affects ecological and evolutionary dynamics.