ISSN:
1432-1939
Keywords:
Leaves
;
Palatability
;
Life-expectancy
;
Herbivory
;
Apparency
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Summary Observations on leaves from plants with a wide range of life-forms, ruderals to trees, indicate that palatability to insect herbivores is strongly correlated with the life-expectancy of the leaves. The amount of damage suffered in the field is however inversely correlated with palatability; although the rate of damage is less on unpalatable leaves, their longer life means that they accumulate damage over a longer period. It is only with extremely well-defended evergreen leaves, that the total damage is less than that experienced by less palatable (but short-lived) leaves. These observations are related to the current theories on relative palatability (the apparency theory and the resource availability theory), within the framework of the habitat templet.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00379901
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