DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Disentangling the roles of neighboring plant density and palatability in providing associational defense against herbivory within different habitat types

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Herbivory can have large effects on the survival, growth, and reproduction of plants in nature, and the amount of herbivory on a plant can be influenced by its neighboring plants. On the one hand, a plant with more palatable neighbors might be eaten less if herbivores choose to eat its neighbors instead. On the other hand, a plant with a higher density of equally palatable neighbors might be eaten more if herbivores are more attracted to patches where food is more plentiful. Either effect might be modified by the overall level of herbivory in a habitat. This project will experimentally test the effects of density and palatability of neighbors in two types of habitats where rates of herbivory differ, longleaf pine woodlands that have or have not been cultivated in the past. Results will increase our basic understanding of the individual factors that underlie the indirect effects of one plant on another through herbivory. The broader impacts of this project include applications to restoration of natural habitats and to control of crop damage in agriculture. Restoration of forests on abandoned farm fields can fail because of overlooked factors such as herbivory, and this research takes place in a critically endangered ecosystem of the southeastern U.S. Neighboring plants have been used to deter herbivory in agricultural systems, and results may show how to improve deterrence and thus yields. Findings will be presented to land managers. The project will also train a Ph.D. student and two undergraduate students in ecological research.