Answers to Hone Your Problem-Solving Skills Questions
1. If only specialist herbivores were present, they would consume only a few or one species of plants. Furthermore, if the herbivores were chemically defended, their consumption by predators would be limited.
Given a diverse plant community, we would expect a lower impact on herbivory and NPP with a trophic cascade involving specialist herbivores than if there were generalist herbivores. This prediction could be tested by varying the presence/absence, or the proportions, of specialist and generalist herbivores and the abundances of predators at the third or fourth trophic level. The response variables would include abundance of the herbivores and the amount of plant consumption.2.
a. The results support the hypothesis that a trophic cascade would influence herbivory and NPP less with specialist herbivores than with generalist herbivores. At a mix of about 25% specialist herbivores, there is little influence of a trophic cascade on herbivory in the deciduous forest ecosystem under study.
b. This appears to be primarily due to lower consumption of herbivores rather than to less consumption of plants due to specialization.
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