Interactions between Herbivores and Plant Diversity (Review)
Interactions between herbivore and plants are central issues in grassland ecology. Biodiversity is critical and the sensitive factor of plant-animal-interface in grassland grazing system. Therefore, study on herbivore-plant diversity interactions is necessary to understand the mechanisms of stability and sustain-ability of the grassland ecosystem. The effects of herbivore on plant diversity and the manner of altered plant diversity on performance, abundance and diversity as well as its influencing factors and intrinsic mechanisms, are reviewed in this paper. Prospects of future research are presented here. The reviewer suggests that the effects of diverse herbivore assemblages on plant diversity should be further well understood in the future and more research should be conducted on feedback effects of plant diversity on herbivore especially for large mammalian herbivore. Herbivore foraging behavior in response to altered plant diversity and behavioral adaptive mechanisms should be studied in depth. The dynamic interacting feedback between herbivore and plant diversity, as well as its influence on ecosystem process and function should be emphasized in any future study.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
