Abstract
BackgroundHerbivory can affect every aspect of a plant's life. Damaged individuals may show decreased survivorship and reproductive output. Additionally, specific plant species (legumes) and tissues (flowers) are often selectively targeted by herbivores, like deer. These types of herbivory influence a plant's growth and abundance. The objective of this study was to identify the effects of leaf and meristem removal (simulated herbivory within an exclosure) on fruit and flower production in four species (Rhus glabra, Rosa arkansana, Lathyrus venosus, and Phlox pilosa) which are known targets of deer herbivory.ResultsLathyrus never flowered or went to seed, so we were unable to detect any treatment effects. Leaf removal did not affect flower number in the other three species. However, Phlox, Rosa, and Rhus all showed significant negative correlations between seed mass and leaf removal. Meristem removal had a more negative effect than leaf removal on flower number in Phlox and on both flower number and seed mass in Rosa.ConclusionsMeristem removal caused a greater response than defoliation alone in both Phlox and Rosa, which suggests that meristem loss has a greater effect on reproduction. The combination of leaf and meristem removal as well as recruitment limitation by deer, which selectively browse for these species, is likely to be one factor contributing to their low abundance in prairies.
Highlights
Herbivory can affect every aspect of a plant's life
Flower number strongly correlated with leaf biomass for Phlox, Rosa, and Rhus (Figure 2)
The number of flowers produced by Phlox (P = 0.6), Rosa (P = 0.13), and Rhus (P = 0.3) was not significantly affected by the leaf removal treatment when accounting for plant size
Summary
Herbivory can affect every aspect of a plant's life. Damaged individuals may show decreased survivorship and reproductive output. Specific plant species (legumes) and tissues (flowers) are often selectively targeted by herbivores, like deer. These types of herbivory influence a plant's growth and abundance. Herbivory can reduce resource availability and subsequently have indirect impacts on plant reproduction [3]. Both meristem damage [4] and leaf damage [3] have been shown to negatively impact components of plant fitness such as survival, flower number, and fruit production [1,4,5,6]. Deer in particular have influenced the composition of plant communities in the northeastern and north-central United States [11,12]
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