Increase in the number of herbivores can cause an imbalance in the ecosystem
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plant diversity around them. The thought was that in highly productive ecosystems -- like jungles and tropical savannas -- animals would favor dominant, fast-growing plants. This would free up nutrients and space, allowing for a greater variety of plants to thrive in the ecosystem overall. In contrast, herbivores in regions with low plant biomass -- such as tundras and deserts -- would eat whatever they could find, driving down plant diversity in the nutrient-strapped ecosystems.
Now, a team of scientists including UC Santa Barbara's Deron Burkepile has tested this hypothesis by conducting a meta-analysis of studies that investigated the effects of herbivory on the plant diversity in different kinds of grasslands around the world. Burkepile, an associate professor of ecology, helped lead the 82-person team of biologists as they reviewed 252 different studies comparing plant diversity in areas where herbivores were and were not excluded. Their findings appear in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
When the dust settled, the correlation between herbivory and diversity wasn't nearly as clear as everyone had expected. "The data was kind of like a shotgun blast," Burkepile said. "So we wanted to tease apart why you'd see this highly variable relationship around this fairly well-accepted idea in ecology."
Although the connection was small between the productivity of the ecosystem and the effects of herbivory on plant diversity, the team noticed another, much stronger association. When the ecosystem hosted a particularly vigorous species of plant, herbivory seemed to be crucial in maintaining biodiversity.
For instance, grasslands in the tallgrass prairie in the American Midwest tend to be dominated by fast-growing grasses, such as big bluestem, that give that area its iconic name. The team discovered that herbivores had an outsized effect on maintaining biodiversity by keeping big bluestem from taking over and outcompeting dozens of smaller, slower growing plant species.
Now, a team of scientists including UC Santa Barbara's Deron Burkepile has tested this hypothesis by conducting a meta-analysis of studies that investigated the effects of herbivory on the plant diversity in different kinds of grasslands around the world. Burkepile, an associate professor of ecology, helped lead the 82-person team of biologists as they reviewed 252 different studies comparing plant diversity in areas where herbivores were and were not excluded. Their findings appear in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
When the dust settled, the correlation between herbivory and diversity wasn't nearly as clear as everyone had expected. "The data was kind of like a shotgun blast," Burkepile said. "So we wanted to tease apart why you'd see this highly variable relationship around this fairly well-accepted idea in ecology."
Although the connection was small between the productivity of the ecosystem and the effects of herbivory on plant diversity, the team noticed another, much stronger association. When the ecosystem hosted a particularly vigorous species of plant, herbivory seemed to be crucial in maintaining biodiversity.
For instance, grasslands in the tallgrass prairie in the American Midwest tend to be dominated by fast-growing grasses, such as big bluestem, that give that area its iconic name. The team discovered that herbivores had an outsized effect on maintaining biodiversity by keeping big bluestem from taking over and outcompeting dozens of smaller, slower growing plant species.
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increase in the number of herbivores can cause an imbalance into the ecosystem,
this is so because the food chain will get destroyed and all the consumers like animals and humans which depend on the producers, the plants .
due to increase in no. of herbivores all the plants will be vanished and this would lead to no life as plants provide us with oxygen ,food,etc
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