Plant–Herbivore Interaction: Beyond a Binary Vision

This chapter conducts a review to identify the features that drive research in plant-herbivore interactions in terrestrial ecosystems. Herbivory has traditionally been viewed as a binary interaction focusing on a simple pair of interacting elements. Damage to plants occurred before they had dispersed the seeds, increasing the potential detrimental effect of herbivory. The plant-stress hypothesis predicts that environmental stresses on plants decrease plant resistance to insect herbivory by altering biochemical source-sink relationships and foliar chemistry, to increase the availability of nutrients for herbivores. In natural systems, herbivory is often detrimental to plants as it removes resources through loss of nutrients and photosynthetic area. The impact that herbivory exerts on plant performance is more dependent on the role of the tissue damaged than on the total biomass lost. Induced plant resistance refers to any active or passive change in the plant after herbivory or infection, which reduces preference, performance, or pathogenicity of the attacker on attack compared with controls.