ArticleCommunications biology2022
Defoliation-induced changes in foliage quality may trigger broad-scale insect outbreaks.
Article in Communications biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pairing Spruce Budworm Control and Minimal Understory Perturbations: Effects of Btk Spraying Frequency in Boreal Forests.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Insect Predator-Prey System Incorporating Refuge Effect.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Top-down effects, like predation, are drivers of insect outbreaks, but bottom-up effects, like host nutritional quality, also influence outbreaks and could in turn be altered by insect-caused defoliation. We evaluated the prediction that herbivory leads to a positive feedback on outbreak severity as nutrient concentration in plant tissues increases through improved soil nutrient availability from frass and litter deposition. Over seven years of a spruce budworm outbreak, we quantified litter nutrient fluxes, soil nitrogen availability, and host tree foliar nutrient status along a forest susceptibility gradient. As the outbreak progressed, both soil nutrient fluxes and availability increased which, in turn, improved foliage quality in surviving host trees. This is consistent with boosted insect fitness and increased population density and defoliation as outbreaks grow. Our results suggest that a positive bottom-up feedback to forest ecosystems from defoliation may result in conditions favorable to self-amplifying population dynamics in insect herbivores that can contribute to driving broad-scale outbreaks.
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