Skip to main content
Log in

Low nutritive quality as a plant defence: Effects of herbivore-mediated interactions

  • Published:
Evolutionary Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

A plant may lower its nutritive quality, for herbivores, by using secondary compounds, morphological characters and/or having a lowered nutrient content. If such traits decrease the amount of resources lost through herbivory, then they act as antiherbivore defences. However, if herbivores compensate for the lowered nutrient availability, by increasing their intake rates or by prolonging their feeding periods, then this may render the defence useless. I analyse the conditions for evolution of this type of plant defences in a game theoretical model. The predictions of the model depend on the amount of compensatory feeding performed by the herbivores and on the herbivores' mobility in relation to the spatial structure of the plant population. When herbivores cannot compensate for a lowered nutritive quality, the defence can evolve irrespective of the type of herbivore. When herbivores can compensate for such defences, the outcome depends on how the herbivores compensate. In situations where herbivores compensate only on defended plants, which could correspond to immobile herbivores, this type of defence can evolve only if the level of compensation is lower than a certain critical value. When herbivores compensate more on defended than on undefended plants, e.g. because of low mobility, the outcome depends on the level of compensation performed on defended plants. If this level of compensation is high, then the model predicts a stable coexistence of defended and undefended plants and, if it is low, then the populations can consist of only defended plants. When herbivores compensate more on undefended plants than on defended ones, e.g. highly mobile herbivores, the result is populations consisting of either only defended plants, or only undefended plants. Consequently, the fact that herbivores may compensate for lowered nutrient quality does not, as such, nullify the notion of low nutrient quality as a plant defence. However, compensatory feeding may restrict the conditions for the evolution of such defences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Augner, M. (1994) Should a plant always signal its defence against herbivores?Oikos 70 322–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Augner, M., Fagerström, T. and Tuomi, J. (1991) Competition, defense and games between plants.Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 29 231–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belovsky, G.E. and Schmitz, O.J. (1990) Mammalian herbivore optimal foraging and the role of plant defenses. InPlant defenses against mammalian herbivory (R.T. Palo and C.T. Robbins, eds), pp. 1–28. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belovsky, G.E., Schmidtz, O.J., Slade, J.B. and Dawson, T.J. (1991) Effects of spines and thorns on Australian arid zone herbivores of different body masses.Oecologia 88 521–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Björkman, C. and Andersson, D.B. (1990) Trade-offs among anti-herbivore defences in a South American blackberry (Rubus bogotensis).Oecologia 85 247–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, J.P. and Kuropat, P.J. (1980) Selection of winter forage by subarctic browsing vertebrates: the role of plant chemistry.Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 11 261–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charnov, E.L. (1976) Optimal foraging: the marginal value theorem.Theor. Pop. Biol. 9 129–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clancy, K.M. and Price, P.W. (1987) Rapid herbivore growth enhances enemy attack: sublethal plant defenses remain a paradox.Ecology 68 733–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coley, P.D. (1986) Costs and benefits of defense by tannins in a neotropical tree.Oecologia 70 238–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeny, P. (1975) Biochemical coevolution between plants and their insect herbivores. InCoevolution of animals and plants (L.E. Gilbert and P.H. Raven, eds), pp. 3–19. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeny, P. (1976) Plant apparency and chemical defense.Rec. Adv. Phytochem. 10 1–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haukioja, E., Ruohomäki, K., Suomela, J. and Vuorisalo, T. (1991) Nutritional quality as a defense against herbivores.Forest Ecol. Manage. 39 237–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, M.E. (1986) Associational plant defenses and the maintenance of species diversity: turning competitors into accomplices.Am. Nat. 128 617–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hjältén, J. and Palo, T. (1992) Selection of deciduous trees by free ranging voles and hares in relation to plant chemistry.Oikos 63 477–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarman, P.J. and Sinclair, A.R.E. (1979) Feeding strategy and the pattern of resource partitioning in ungulates. InSerengeti, dynamics of an ecosystem (A.R.E. Sinclair and M. Norton-Griffiths, eds), pp. 130–63. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leather, S.R. and Walsh, P.J. (1939 Sub-lethal plant defences: the paradox remains.Oecologia 93 153–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, P. and Åström, M. (1990) Low nutritive quality as a defense against optimally foraging herbivores.Am. Nat. 135 547–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, P. and Palo, R.T. (1993) Resource use, plant defenses, and optimal digestion in ruminants.Oikos 68 224–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNaughton, S.J. (1978) Serengeti ungulates: feeding selectivity influencess the effectiveness of plant defense guilds.Science 199 806–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNaughton, S.J. and Tarrants, J.L. (1983) Grass leaf silification: natural selection for an inducible defense against herbivores.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80 790–1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith, J. (1982)Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran, N. and Hamilton, W.D. (1980) Low nutritive quality as defense against herbivores.J. Theor. Biol. 86 247–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, J.H. and Bazely, D. (1991) Thorns, spines, prickles, and hairs: are they stimulated by herbivory and do they deter herbivores? InPhytochemical induction by herbivores (D.W. Tallamy and M.J. Raupp, eds), pp. 325–44. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potter, D.A. and Kimmerer, T.W. (1988) Do holly leaf spines really deter herbivory?Oecologia 75 216–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, P.W., Bouton, C.E., Gross, P., McPheron, B.A., Thompson, J.N. and Weis, A.E. (1980) Interactions among three trophic levels: influence of plants on interactions between insect herbivores and natural enemies.Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 11 41–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhoades, D.F. (1979) Evolution of plant chemical defense against herbivores. InHerbivores: their interaction with plant secondary metabolites (G.A. Rosenthal and D.H. Janzen, eds), pp. 3–54. Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhoades, D.F. and Cates, R.G. (1976) Toward a general theory of plant antiherbivore chemistry.Rec. Adv. Phytochem. 10 168–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, C.T., Mole, S., Hagerman, A.E. and Hanley, T.A. (1987) Role of tannins in defending plants against ruminants: reduction in dry matter digestion.Ecology 68 1606–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, C.A. (1979) Proteinase inhibitors. InHerbivores: their interaction with plant secondary metabolites (G.A. Rosenthal and D.H. Janzen, eds), pp. 599–618. Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skogsmyr, I. and Fagerström, T. (1992) The cost of anti-herbivore defence: an evaluation of some ecological and physiological factors.Oikos 64 451–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swain, T. (1979) Tannins and lignins. InHerbivores: their interaction with plant secondary metabolites (G.A. Rosenthal and D.H. Janzen, eds), pp. 657–82. Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tahvanainen, J.O. and Root, R.B. (1972) The influence of vegetational diversity on the population ecology of a specialized herbivore,Phyllotreta cruciferae (Coleoptera: Chr somelidae).Oecologia 10 321–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuomi, J. and Augner, M. (1993) Synergistic selection of unpalatability in plants.Evolution 47 668–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Soest, P.J. and Jones, L.H.P. (1968) Effect of silica in forages upon digestibility.J. Dairy Sci. 51 1644–8.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Augner, M. Low nutritive quality as a plant defence: Effects of herbivore-mediated interactions. Evol Ecol 9, 605–616 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237658

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237658

Keywords

Navigation