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Plant–herbivore interactions and ecological stoichiometry: when do herbivores determine plant nutrient limitation?
Author(s) -
Daufresne Tanguy,
Loreau Michel
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2001.00210.x
Subject(s) - herbivore , phosphorus , biomass (ecology) , nutrient , nitrogen , ecological stoichiometry , ecology , grazing , agronomy , phosphorus deficiency , nutrient cycle , biology , chemistry , organic chemistry
Recent studies on plant–herbivore indirect interactions via nutrient recycling have led to the hypothesis that herbivores with a low nitrogen: phosphorus ratio, feeding on plants with a higher nitrogen: phosphorus ratio, recycle relatively more nitrogen, driving plants into phosphorus limitation. We demonstrate in this paper that such a hypothesis is valid only under restricted conditions, i.e. the nitrogen: phosphorus ratio of inorganic nutrients supplied to the system must be neither too high nor too low compared with the nitrogen: phosphorus ratio of the whole plant + herbivore biomass. If plants have a greater affinity for phosphorus than for nitrogen, low herbivore nitrogen: phosphorus ratio can even promote nitrogen limitation. These results are qualitatively robust, whether grazing functions are donor‐controlled or recipient‐controlled. We present a graphical analysis of these conditions based on the Zero Net Growth Isocline method.