PMID: 11607475Jun 7, 1994Paper

Resource edibility and trophic exploitation in an old-field food web

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Oswald J Schmitz

Abstract

I tested a food web model that predicts how environmental productivity (nutrient supply) and top carnivores should mediate interactions among herbivores, edible plants, and plants that are resistant to herbivory because they possess anti-herbivore defenses. Feeding trials with the dominant grasshopper herbivore at the study site confirmed that certain plant species were resistant to herbivory because of protection by pubescent leaves and stems. Experimental food webs with various numbers of trophic levels composed of edible and resistant plants, grasshoppers, and hunting spiders were assembled in enclosure cages. I randomly assigned half of the cages to a nutrient-enrichment treatment and half remained as a control. Nutrient supply directly enhanced primary productivity and plant and herbivore biomass. Experimentally changing spider abundance caused a classic "trophic cascade" in which herbivore biomass increased and edible plant biomass decreased. Resistant plant biomass increased. These results matched predictions of the model with one exception. A trophic cascade was not observed under enriched conditions. The study nevertheless shows that a simple model attempting to explain heterogeneous interactions in food webs may give ...Continue Reading

References

Feb 15, 1993·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·J T Wootton, M E Power
Nov 1, 1987·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·T W Schoener
Nov 9, 1990·Science·M E Power

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Citations

Feb 9, 2008·Bulletin of Entomological Research·M T FountainP J Murray
Sep 2, 1998·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·M P HassellJ H Lawton
Apr 29, 1999·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·L A Dyer, D K Letourneau
Oct 20, 2000·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·A P BeckermanO J Schmitz
Dec 28, 2006·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Robert M PringleDouglas J McCauley
Dec 28, 2006·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Andrew J Larson, Robert T Paine
Oct 18, 2014·Science·Adam T FordRobert M Pringle
Aug 19, 2008·The American Naturalist·J Halaj, D H Wise
Feb 25, 2000·The American Naturalist·Oswald J SchmitzAndrew P Beckerman
May 11, 2000·The American Naturalist·Lauri Oksanen, Tarja Oksanen
May 5, 2012·Mathematical Biosciences·Samrat Chatterjee
Aug 21, 2008·Ecology Letters·Shawn J Leroux, Michel Loreau
Mar 24, 2016·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Joshua H Daskin, Robert M Pringle
Nov 4, 2017·Ecology Letters·Mayra C Vidal, Shannon M Murphy

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