Abstract
Plants are systemically relevant to our planet not only by constituting a major part of its biomass, but also because they produce a vast diversity of bioactive phytochemicals. These compounds often modulate interactions between plants and the environment, and can have substantial effects on plant consumers and their health. By taking a food web perspective, we highlight the role of bioactive phytochemicals in linking soils, plants, animals and humans and discuss their contributions to systems health. The analysis of connections among food web components revealed an underexplored potential of phytochemicals to optimize food web health and productivity.
Highlights
New Phytologist environment organic molecules by secreting root exudates, thereby feeding the surrounding rhizosphere microfauna and macrofauna (Fig. 1; Sasse et al, 2018)
Primary metabolites account for only a small fraction of the diversity of chemicals and include carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins among others
Plants produce a staggering diversity of secondary metabolites
Summary
Primary metabolites account for only a small fraction of the diversity of chemicals and include carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins among others. They mainly serve as building blocks and energy-carrying carbon resources and thereby, they are essential for plant growth as well as for animal and human diets. Boundaries between primary and secondary metabolites are blurry, the latter often modulate interactions between plants and the environment, and can have substantial effects on consumers and their health (Erb & Kliebenstein, 2020). We put forward that phytochemicals other than wellknown nutrients and vitamins represent important proximal links between food web components and function as mediators of food web health (Fig. 1). We do this with two well-studied examples, glucosinolates and benzoxazinoids, and illustrate their journey and discuss mechanisms by which they mediate food web health
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