Chemical Mediation of Surface Colonization

There is strong evidence for the importance of naturally produced compounds as mediators of ecological interactions between marine benthic consumers and their prey, e.g., in plant-herbivore and predator-prey interactions (reviewed by Hay, Hay and Steinberg, McClintock and Baker, Paul, and Pawlik). Dozens of characterized, ecologically relevant feeding deterrents are known from marine benthic organisms (reviewed by Hay and Paul). As a consequence, studies of chemically mediated plant-herbivore or predator-prey interactions have increasingly moved beyond a consideration of simple feeding deterrence to address more complex ecological and evolutionary issues such as induction of defenses, specialization of consumers, and geographic variation in defenses.