Macroecological and macroevolutionary patterns of leaf herbivory across vascular plants.

ABSTRACT: The consumption of plants by animals underlies important evolutionary and ecological processes in nature. Arthropod herbivory evolved approximately 415 Ma and the ensuing coevolution between plants and herbivores is credited with generating much of the macroscopic diversity on the Earth. In contemporary ecosystems, herbivory provides the major conduit of energy from primary producers to consumers. Here, we show that when averaged across all major lineages of vascular plants, herbivores consume 5.3% of the leaf tissue produced annually by plants, whereas previous estimates are up to 3.8× higher. This result suggests that for many plant species, leaf herbivory may play a smaller role in energy and nutrient flow than currently thought. Comparative analyses of a diverse global sample of 1058 s

SUBMITTER: Turcotte MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4071545 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature