Resource Availability and Plant Antiherbivore Defense

Coley, Phyllis D.; Bryant, John P.; Chapin, F. Stuart

doi:10.1126/science.230.4728.895

Cited by 3,508 publications

(3,286 citation statements)

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“…RGRs increased with herbivory for species with conservative resource use strategies (evergreen species with negative loadings on PC1 morph and positive loadings on PC2 morph), but not for less conservative species. However, conservative plant species usually show slower compensation rates following herbivory (Coley, Bryant, & Chapin, 1985; Nykänen & Koricheva, 2004). Cause and effect could therefore also be reversed in this case: Our results might reflect increased herbivore performance and damage on evergreen tree species with high RGRs, because investments in defense against damage can be greatly reduced in such cases (Coley et al., 1985; Endara & Coley, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, conservative plant species usually show slower compensation rates following herbivory (Coley, Bryant, & Chapin, 1985; Nykänen & Koricheva, 2004). Cause and effect could therefore also be reversed in this case: Our results might reflect increased herbivore performance and damage on evergreen tree species with high RGRs, because investments in defense against damage can be greatly reduced in such cases (Coley et al., 1985; Endara & Coley, 2011). However, preliminary results from a manipulative study that used insecticides to exclude herbivores at our study site indicate that tree growth increases when herbivory is reduced (Y. Huang et al., unpublished data), supporting our expectation that herbivory influences tree growth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Herbivore and pathogen effects on tree growth are additive, but mediated by tree diversity and plant traits

Schuldt

Hönig

Liu

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Herbivores and fungal pathogens are key drivers of plant community composition and functioning. The effects of herbivores and pathogens are mediated by the diversity and functional characteristics of their host plants. However, the combined effects of herbivory and pathogen damage, and their consequences for plant performance, have not yet been addressed in the context of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research. We analyzed the relationships between herbivory, fungal pathogen damage and their effects on tree growth in a large‐scale forest‐biodiversity experiment. Moreover, we tested whether variation in leaf trait and climatic niche characteristics among tree species influenced these relationships. We found significant positive effects of herbivory on pathogen damage, and vice versa. These effects were attenuated by tree species richness—because herbivory increased and pathogen damage decreased with increasing richness—and were most pronounced for species with soft leaves and narrow climatic niches. However, herbivory and pathogens had contrasting, independent effects on tree growth, with pathogens decreasing and herbivory increasing growth. The positive herbivory effects indicate that trees might be able to (over‐)compensate for local damage at the level of the whole tree. Nevertheless, we found a dependence of these effects on richness, leaf traits and climatic niche characteristics of the tree species. This could mean that the ability for compensation is influenced by both biodiversity loss and tree species identity—including effects of larger‐scale climatic adaptations that have been rarely considered in this context. Our results suggest that herbivory and pathogens have additive but contrasting effects on tree growth. Considering effects of both herbivory and pathogens may thus help to better understand the net effects of damage on tree performance in communities differing in diversity. Moreover, our study shows how species richness and species characteristics (leaf traits and climatic niches) can modify tree growth responses to leaf damage under real‐world conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbivore and pathogen effects on tree growth are additive, but mediated by tree diversity and plant traits

Schuldt

Hönig

Liu

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…However, species optimizing one functional trait commonly have to pay costs regarding other traits due to physiological, energetic, and genetic constraints (Stearns, 1989). Trade‐offs between defense and competitiveness have been frequently found in nature and may explain the high diversity of strategies along the gradient of being defended or highly competitive (Agrawal, 1998; Coley, Bryant, & Chapin, 1985; Hillebrand, Worm, & Lotze, 2000). Predation may enable coexistence of competing species facing a trade‐off between defense and competitiveness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not attackable or not crackable—How pre‐ and post‐attack defenses with different competition costs affect prey coexistence and population dynamics

Ehrlich

Gaedke

2018

Ecology and Evolution

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It is well‐known that prey species often face trade‐offs between defense against predation and competitiveness, enabling predator‐mediated coexistence. However, we lack an understanding of how the large variety of different defense traits with different competition costs affects coexistence and population dynamics. Our study focusses on two general defense mechanisms, that is, pre‐attack (e.g., camouflage) and post‐attack defenses (e.g., weaponry) that act at different phases of the predator—prey interaction. We consider a food web model with one predator, two prey types and one resource. One prey type is undefended, while the other one is pre‐ or post‐attack defended paying costs either by a higher half‐saturation constant for resource uptake or a lower maximum growth rate. We show that post‐attack defenses promote prey coexistence and stabilize the population dynamics more strongly than pre‐attack defenses by interfering with the predator's functional response: Because the predator spends time handling “noncrackable” prey, the undefended prey is indirectly facilitated. A high half‐saturation constant as defense costs promotes coexistence more and stabilizes the dynamics less than a low maximum growth rate. The former imposes high costs at low resource concentrations but allows for temporally high growth rates at predator‐induced resource peaks preventing the extinction of the defended prey. We evaluate the effects of the different defense mechanisms and costs on coexistence under different enrichment levels in order to vary the importance of bottom‐up and top‐down control of the prey community.

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“…Nutrient enrichment can lead to competitive exclusion of inferior competitors for light 19,20 , but herbivores can remove plant biomass, potentially alleviating understory light limitation. However, herbivory creates another axis of potential trade-offs among plant species, involving investment in rapid growth and light capture versus investment in defence against herbivory [23][24][25][26] . These interactions result in a dynamic local community in which composition responds quickly to changes in the strength of nutrient limitation or herbivory 25,26 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%