Global signal of top-down control of terrestrial plant communities by herbivores

• Main Authors: Jia, Shihong, Wang, Xugao, Yuan, Zuoqiang, Lin, Fei, Ye, Ji, Hao, Zhanqing, Luskin, Matthew Scott
• Other Authors: Asian School of the Environment
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Meta-analysis; Species Diversity; Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86183; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49853
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The theory of “top-down” ecological regulation predicts that herbivory suppresses plant abundance, biomass, and survival but increases diversity through the disproportionate consumption of dominant species, which inhibits competitive exclusion. To date, these outcomes have been clear in aquatic ecos...