Université de Fribourg

Plant invasions, generalist herbivores, and novel defense weapons

Schaffner, Urs ; Ridenour, Wendy M. ; Wolf, Vera C. ; Bassett, Thomas ; Müller, Caroline ; Müller-Schärer, Heinz ; Sutherland, Steve ; Lortie, Christopher J. ; Callaway, Ragan M.

In: Ecology, 2011, vol. 92, no. 4, p. 829-835

One commonly accepted mechanism for biological invasions is that species, after introduction to a new region, leave behind their natural enemies and therefore increase in distribution and abundance. However, which enemies are escaped remains unclear. Escape from specialist invertebrate herbivores has been examined in detail, but despite the profound effects of generalist herbivores in natural...