PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 3: Herbivory: Plant - Herbivore Interaction
Monday, August 8, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 513 E, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Plant invasions are suppressed by native herbivores but promoted by introduced herbivores.

Parker, John^*,1, Burkepile, Deron ¹, Hay, Mark¹, ¹ Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

ABSTRACT- Introduced species are often thought to succeed because they represent novel interactors that confound native species. In contrast, we show that native generalist herbivores prefer introduced over native plants, but introduced herbivores show no preference, consistent with evolutionary reasoning that introduced prey may be unable to repel evolutionarily novel enemies. A meta-analysis of 69 herbivore-exclusion experiments further shows that plant invasions are suppressed by native generalist herbivores but promoted by introduced herbivores. Consequently, most introduced plants do not appear to escape consumer control in their new ranges, but instead are resisted by native generalist herbivores and facilitated by introduced herbivores.

Key words: enemy release, biotic resistance, invasional meltdown, herbivores and plant invasions