Costs and benefits of omnivore-mediated plant protection: effects of plant-feeding on Salix growth more detrimental than expected.

ABSTRACT: Predators can decrease herbivore damage to plants, and this is often assumed to be beneficial to plant growth/reproduction without actual quantification. Moreover, previous studies have been biased towards strict carnivores and neglected the role of omnivorous predators in prey-suppression. Here, we examined the costs (reduction in growth) and benefits (increase in growth) of enemy-mediated plant protection via the omnivorous (prey and plant-feeding) Orthotylus marginalis, relative to herbivory by a detrimental insect pest of Salix spp. plantations, the beetle Phratora vulgatissima. In a first experiment, we compared the cost of adult beetle versus omnivore nymph plant-feeding, and assessed the (non-) additive effects of the two types of damage. In a second experiment, we quantified the re

SUBMITTER: Puentes A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5487851 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature