title: The association of leaf lifespan and background insect herbivory at the interspecific level.
abstract: Herbivory is well known to be a major selective pressure that affects plant communities, but the leaf traits that mediate variations in herbivory at the interspecific level remain controversial. We collected published data on background insect herbivory and leaf traits from a wide variety of species to test the hypothesis that species with intermediate leaf lifespans, lower fiber, and higher nutrient contents in leaves should have higher levels of herbivory. We found that at the interspecific level herbivory had a hump-shaped relationship with leaf lifespan and a positive relationship with leaf size. Surprisingly, our data show that nutritional traits have little relationship to herbivory. Our study provides new insights relevant to the recent debate on leaf trait-herbivory relationships. These findings are especially helpful in explaining the general patterns of herbivory detected on the global scale.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
authors.forename: Yuxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
authors.forename: Keming
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D060434:Herbivory; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D018515:Plant Leaves; D010944:Plants
keywords: herbivore; leaf lifespan; leaf size; leaf traits; plant defense; plant-herbivore interactions; resistance; specific leaf area