Changes in the background losses of woody plant foliage to insects during the past 60 years: are the predictions fulfilled?




Kozlov MV, Zvereva EL

PublisherRoyal Soc

2015

Biology Letters

BIOLOGY LETTERS

Biol Letters

ARTN 20150480

11

7

1

3

3

1744-9561

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0480



The existing scenarios generally predict that herbivory will increase with climate warming. An analysis of the published data on the background foliar losses of woody plants to insects in natural ecosystems across the globe from 1952 to 2013 provided no support for this hypothesis. We detected no temporal trend in herbivory within the temperate climate zone and a significant decrease in herbivory in the tropics. From 1964 to 1990, herbivory in the tropics was 39% higher than in the temperate region, but these differences disappeared by the beginning of the 2000s. Thus, environmental changes have already disturbed one of the global ecological patterns-the decrease in herbivory with latitude-by affecting ecosystem processes differently in tropical and temperate climate zones.




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