Leaf herbivory by insects during summer reduces overwinter browsing by moose.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Damage to plants by herbivores potentially affects the quality and quantity of the plant tissue available to other herbivore taxa that utilize the same host plants at a later time. This study addresses the indirect effects of insect herbivores on mammalian browsers, a particularly poorly-understood class of interactions. Working in the Alaskan boreal forest, we investigated the indirect effects of insect damage to Salix interior leaves during the growing season on the consumption of browse by moose during winter, and on quantity and quality of browse production.

Results

Treatment with insecticide reduced leaf mining damage by the willow leaf blotch miner, Micrurapteryx salicifoliella, and increased both the biomass and proportion of the total production of woody t

SUBMITTER: Allman BP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6161349 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature