The detoxification systems of mammalian herbivores are thought to have evolved in response to the ingestion of plant secondary compounds. Specialist herbivores consume high quantities of secondary compounds and are predicted to have faster rates of Phase 1 detoxification compared to generalist herbivores. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the performances of a specialist (Neotoma fuscipes)...

Seawater temperature varies across multiple spatial and temporal scales, yet the roles that such variation play in altering biotic interactions are poorly known. We assessed temperature-mediated feeding behavior exhibited by the herbivorous amphipod Ampithoe longimana collected from cold-temperate and subtropical estuaries (27 degrees N and 41 degrees N, respectively). Individuals were offered ...

Tri-trophic interactions among plants, herbivores, and natural enemies of herbivores are common in nature, and are crucial components of trophic cascades and the dynamics of community composition. Plant traits are key determinants of the interactions between herbivores and their natural enemies aboveground, which in turn are affected by soil organisms. Recent years have seen a surge in studies ...

Plants are frequently under attack by multiple herbivores and can be infested at their shoots as well as their roots. As a consequence, plant metabolites are readily induced, mediated by phytohormones such as salicylic acid and jasmonic acid. Thereby, cross-talk between signal transduction pathways may occur if different herbivores attack the plant simultaneously. In turn, modifications in the ...

The attractant-decoy hypothesis predicts that focal plants can defend against herbivory by neighboring with preferred plant species when herbivores make decisions at the plant species scale. The repellent-plant hypothesis assumes that focal plants will gain protection by associating with nonpreferred neighbors when herbivores are selective at the patch scale. However, herbivores usually make fo...

California sage scrub (CSS) is an endangered, shrub-dominated, southern ecosystem type threatened by increasing fire frequencies and conversion to non-native grasslands. As CSS harbors a rich endemic flora fauna critical for maintaining key services; significant attention has been focused on understanding how many factors (N-deposition, drought, competition with non-natives) influence post-fire...

So far, genetic engineering of plants in the context of insect pest control has involved insertion of genes that code for toxins, and may be characterized as the incorporation of biopesticides into classical plant breeding. In the context of pesticide usage in pest control, natural enemies of herbivores have received increasing attention, because carnivorous arthropods are an important componen...

The evolution of increased competitive ability (EICA) hypothesis proposes that invasive species evolve decreased defense and increased competitive ability following natural enemy release. Previous tests of EICA examined the result of evolution by comparing individuals from home and introduced ranges, but no previous study of this hypothesis has examined the process of evolution by analyzing pat...

No study of a single nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulator species has investigated the impact of hyperaccumulation on herbivores representing a variety of feeding modes. Streptanthus polygaloides plants were grown on high- or low-Ni soils and a series of no-choice and choice feeding experiments was conducted using eight arthropod herbivores. Herbivores used were two leaf-chewing folivores (the grasshop...