ArticleThe New phytologist2019
Forest diversity effects on insect herbivores: do leaf traits matter?
Article in The New phytologist, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Signaling defenses with color: a meta-analysis of leaf color variation, palatability, and herbivore damage.The New phytologist · 2025Pooled it
- Tree Species Diversity, Canopy Height, and Soil Nutrient Availability Shape Leaf Insect Herbivory in Zhoushan Archipelago, China.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Effects of neighborhood diversity on herbivory in early-stage forests in southern China.Plant diversity · 2026Article
- Asynchrony and functional diversity couple herbivore community dynamics to host plant diversity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Role of Leaf Traits in Driving Genotypic Diversity-Mediated Associational Effects in Silver Birch.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Stand Diversity Does Not Mitigate Increased Herbivory on Climate-Matched Oaks in an Assisted Migration Experiment.Plant, cell & environment · 2025Article
- Plant Functional Traits Better Explain the Global Latitudinal Patterns of Leaf Insect Herbivory than Climatic Factors.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Plant species richness promotes the decoupling of leaf and root defence traits while species-specific responses in physical and chemical defences are rare.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- The modern pattern of insect herbivory predates the advent of angiosperms by 60 My.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Forest loss increases foliar insect and pathogen damage on poplar trees in natural riparian forests.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Canopy insect communities are shaped by the genes and phenotypes of their aspen hosts.PloS one · 2025Article
- Substantial Insect Herbivory in a South African Savanna-Forest Mosaic: A Neglected Topic.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Artificial light at night decreases leaf herbivory in typical urban areas.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Article
- Plant neighbourhood diversity effects on leaf traits: A meta-analysis.Functional ecology · 2023Article
- Influence of phylogenetic diversity of plant communities on tri-trophic interactions.Oecologia · 2023Article
- Effects of indirect plant-plant interaction via root exudate on growth and leaf chemical contents inPlant signaling & behavior · 2022Article
- Leaf Nutritional Content, Tree Richness, and Season Shape the Caterpillar Functional Trait Composition Hosted by Trees.Insects · 2022Article
- DNA metabarcoding reveals host-specific communities of arthropods residing in fungal fruit bodies.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Assessing the health of forested riverine systems in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria: a macroinvertebrate-based multimetric index approach.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Effects ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Insect herbivore damage and abundance are often reduced in diverse plant stands. However, few studies have explored whether this phenomenon is a result of plant diversity effects on host plant traits. We explored indirect effects of tree species diversity on herbivory via changes in leaf traits in a long-term forest diversity experiment in Finland. We measured 16 leaf traits and leaf damage by four insect guilds (chewers, gall formers, leaf miners and rollers) on silver birch (Betula pendula) trees growing in one-, two-, three- and five-species mixtures. A decline in the frequency of birch in mixed stands resulted in reduced leaf area. This, in turn, mediated the reduction in chewing damage in mixed stands. In contrast, associational resistance of birch to leaf miners was not trait-mediated but driven directly by concurrent declines in birch frequency as tree species richness increased. Our results show that leaf trait variation across the diversity gradient might promote associational resistance, but these patterns are driven by an increase in the relative abundance of heterospecifics rather than by tree species richness per se. Therefore, accounting for concurrent changes in stand structure and key foliar traits is important for the interpretation of plant diversity effects and predictions of associational patterns.
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