Population,community and ecosystem effects of exotic herbivores: A growing global concern |
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Authors: | Martin A Nuñez Joseph K Bailey Jennifer A Schweitzer |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA;(2) Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA |
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Abstract: | Exotic herbivores represent a serious threat to native biodiversity, producing large scale changes in native communities and
altering ecosystem processes. In this special issue, we present a series of case studies and reviews from different areas
of the world that highlight (1) the consequences of herbivore introductions are a global problem; (2) they can result in wholesale
shifts in the distribution of dominant plants on the landscape and; (3) the effects of herbivore introductions extend from
the population to the community and ecosystem level. These studies suggest that introduced herbivores often retard ecosystem
recovery after disturbance, facilitate invasion of plant species and can act as selective agents on native plant communities.
These studies also suggest that several topics, including facilitation between exotic herbivores and exotic plants and animals
(i.e., invasional meltdown) and the effect of exotic herbivores on ecosystem processes, require more research attention. Overall
the papers in this special feature suggest that introduced herbivores are a global problem with wide-ranging ecological and
evolutionary effects. |
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