Swihart Robert K, DeAngelis Donald L, Feng Zhilan, Bryant John P
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
BMC Ecol. 2009 Feb 24;9:5. doi: 10.1186/1472-6785-9-5.
Earlier models of plant-herbivore interactions relied on forms of functional response that related rates of ingestion by herbivores to mechanical or physical attributes such as bite size and rate. These models fail to predict a growing number of findings that implicate chemical toxins as important determinants of plant-herbivore dynamics. Specifically, considerable evidence suggests that toxins set upper limits on food intake for many species of herbivorous vertebrates. Herbivores feeding on toxin-containing plants must avoid saturating their detoxification systems, which often occurs before ingestion rates are limited by mechanical handling of food items. In light of the importance of plant toxins, a new approach is needed to link herbivores to their food base. We discuss necessary features of such an approach, note recent advances in herbivore functional response models that incorporate effects of plant toxins, and mention predictions that are consistent with observations in natural systems. Future ecological studies will need to address explicitly the importance of plant toxins in shaping plant and herbivore communities.
早期的植物-食草动物相互作用模型依赖于功能反应形式，这种形式将食草动物的摄食率与诸如咬食大小和速率等机械或物理属性联系起来。这些模型无法预测越来越多的研究结果，这些结果表明化学毒素是植物-食草动物动态的重要决定因素。具体而言，大量证据表明，毒素为许多食草脊椎动物的食物摄入量设定了上限。以含毒素植物为食的食草动物必须避免其解毒系统饱和，而这种情况通常在摄食率受到食物机械处理限制之前就会发生。鉴于植物毒素的重要性，需要一种新方法来将食草动物与其食物基础联系起来。我们讨论了这种方法的必要特征，指出了纳入植物毒素影响的食草动物功能反应模型的最新进展，并提及了与自然系统观测结果一致的预测。未来的生态学研究需要明确解决植物毒素在塑造植物和食草动物群落方面的重要性。
