title: Mechanisms, ecological consequences and agricultural implications of tri-trophic interactions.
abstract: Recent research bridging mechanistic and ecological approaches demonstrates that plant attributes can affect herbivores, natural enemies of herbivores, and their interaction. Such effects may be genetically variable among plants and/or induced in individual plants by herbivore attack, and are mediated by primary plant attributes (i.e. nutritional quality and physical structure) and defense-related products (i.e. secondary chemicals and plant volatiles), and may be modified by human activity (e.g. by the introduction of Bacillus thuringiensis). The study of tri-trophic interactions is important in order to understand natural species interactions and to manipulate these interactions in pest control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 3B2, Canada. agrawal@botany.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Agrawal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D001709:Biotechnology; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D004463:Ecology; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000187:drug effects; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010937:Plant Growth Regulators