Habitat fragmentation effects on insect herbivory in Chaco Serrano woodlands

VIDELA, M.; CAGNOLO, L.; VALLADARES, G. R.; SALVO, A.; FENOGLIO, M. S.

Understanding Biodiversity Loss: An overview on Forest Fragmentation in South America.

International Asociation for Landscape Ecology. Landscape Research and Management Papers

Año: 2007 vol. 1 p. 86 - 91

1570-6532

Herbivory is a key process for energy and nutrient transfer to higher trophic levels, nutrient cycling and plant competitive balance. Despite its importance and widespread study in other contexts, herbivory have rarely been investigated in relation to habitat fragmentation. We compard insect herbivory rates in continuous and fragmented woodlands, separately considering damage by different feeding guilds. Herbivory, mostly by leaf chewers, was lower in remnants than in the original woodlands. This result was not attributable to changes in plant species composition or in relative damage by the different guilds. We have provided the first evidence of habitat fragmentation effects on overall herbivory rates at the plant community level. The consistency of these effects and the underlying mechanisms deserve further study.