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Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter
Published on: March 12, 2013
Four ways towards tropical herbivore megadiversity
Thomas M Lewinsohn1, Tomas Roslin
1Laboratório Interações Insetos-Plantas, Depto. Zoologia, IB, UNICAMP, Campinas 13083-970, São Paulo, Brazil. thomasl@unicamp.br
Ecology Letters
|February 6, 2008
Summary
Tropical arthropod diversity is largely driven by the number of host plant species. Understanding this relationship is key to global biodiversity, but more research is needed on other factors like species turnover.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Biodiversity Science
- Zoology
Background:
- Most multicellular species are tropical arthropods linked to plants.
- Host-specificity and diversity of these species are crucial for understanding global biodiversity assembly.
- Tropical herbivore megadiversity is a key area for ecological research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a comprehensive scheme partitioning tropical herbivore megadiversity.
- To scrutinize recent studies on factors contributing to herbivore diversity.
- To identify methodological differences and propose a unified approach.
Main Methods:
- Partitioning tropical herbivore megadiversity into four components: host plant species, arthropod species per plant, herbivore host specificity, and species turnover (beta diversity).
- Scrutinizing recent studies addressing each component.
- Conducting a meta-analysis of published results on plant and herbivore diversity correlations.
Main Results:
- Substantial support found for component A: a greater number of tropical host plant species.
- Meta-analysis revealed intermediate to high correlations between plant and herbivore diversity, explaining up to 60% of variation in insect species richness.
- Support for other factors (B, C, D) is mixed due to scarce and uneven study approaches.
Conclusions:
- More tropical host plant species are a significant driver of herbivore diversity.
- Current research is insufficient to quantitatively assess the relative contribution of all factors.
- A call for coherent methodologies, integrated studies, and comprehensive investigation of herbivore beta diversity is made.
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