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Population-level variation in plant secondary chemistry, and the population biology of herbivores

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Summary

Modern population ecology is becoming increasingly spatially-explicit. For insect hervibores, spatial variation in plant quality is a critical component of distribution and abundance. We argue that populationlevel measurements of phytochemical variation among individual plants has not kept pace with recent developments in population ecology. With examples from our own work, we demonstrate the importance of spatial variation in plant chemistry for insect herbivores, and suggest that phytochemistry should play a central role in the development of any spatially-based ecological theory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, 30602-2202, Athens, GA, USA

    Mark D. Hunter

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University, 49008, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

    Stephen B. Malcolm

  3. Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Banchory Research Station, United Kingdom

    Susan E. Hartley

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  1. Mark D. Hunter
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  2. Stephen B. Malcolm
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Hunter, M.D., Malcolm, S.B. & Hartley, S.E. Population-level variation in plant secondary chemistry, and the population biology of herbivores. Chemoecology 7, 45–56 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01240637

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