Comment on "Why are there so many species of herbivorous insects in tropical rainforests?".
نویسندگان
چکیده
Novotny et al. (Reports, 25 August 2006, p. 1115) argued that higher herbivore diversity in tropical forests results from greater phylogenetic diversity of host plants, not from higher host specificity. However, if host specificity is related to host abundance, differences in relative host abundance between tropical and temperate regions may limit any general conclusion that herbivore diversity scales directly with host-plant diversity.
منابع مشابه
Why are there so many species of herbivorous insects in tropical rainforests?
Despite recent progress in understanding mechanisms of tree species coexistence in tropical forests, a simple explanation for the even more extensive diversity of insects feeding on these plants has been missing. We compared folivorous insects from temperate and tropical trees to test the hypothesis that herbivore species coexistence in more diverse communities could reflect narrow host specifi...
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Norton and Didham (1) argue that differences in plant abundance between tropical and temperate forests may limit the general conclusion that herbivore diversity scales directly with host plant diversity. They point out that our study (2) did not include locally rare tree species. Our temperate/tropical comparison was standardized for sample size and plant phylogeny but not for plant abundance a...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Science
دوره 315 5819 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2007