Southern Research Station Headquarters - Asheville, NC
Main Logo of Southern Research Station, Stating: Southern Research Station - Asheville, NC, with a saying of 'Science you can use!'
[Images] Five photos of different landscape

Publication Information

Mail this page  

Title: Native, insect herbivore communities derive a significant proportion of their carbon from a widespread invader of forest understories.
Author(s): Bradford, Mark A.; DeVore, Jayna L.; Maerz, John C.; McHugh, Joseph V.; Smith, Cecil L.; Strickland, Michael S.
Date: 2009
Source: Biological Invasions Doi: 10.1007/s10530-009-9480-x.
Station ID: JRNL-srs-
Description: Research on natural enemies demonstrates the potential for exotic plants to be integrated into foodwebs through the activities of native herbivores. The quantitative importance of exotics as a food resource to herbivores is more difficult to ascertain. In addition, some widespread invaders appear to have minimal herbivore loads. Microstegium vimineum is one example. It is an annual, C4 grass that invades forest understories and is widespread across the eastern US. Its invasion alters the structure and composition of forests. We sampled invertebrates in a tree-canopy gap and under canopy area, and used the unique carbon isotope value of M. vimineum to estimate the quantitative importance of the invader as a food resource relative to native plants. Seven of the eight invertebrate species derived on average >35% of their biomass carbon from M. vimineum, and some individuals representing both ‘chewing’ and ‘sucking’ feeding guilds derived their biomass carbon exclusively from M. vimineum. Our results show that M. vimineum can be a significant food resource for a multi-species, multi-guild, assemblage of native, invertebrate herbivores. Future work is required to assess whether M. vimineum is acquiring herbivores in other parts of its introduced range, and if so what might be the ecological consequences.
View and Print this Publication (203.27 KB)
Publication Notes:
  • We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
  • This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.
  • Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat. During the capture process some typographical errors may occur. Please contact the SRS Webmaster, srswebmaster@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unuseable.
  • You may send email to pubrequest@fs.fed.us to request a hard copy of this publication. (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)
[ Get Acrobat ] Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility




Publication Links:

FIA Resource Bulletins

Publications Search


Search for on-line publications
containing the following:

 


(Uncheck this box to search all R&D Publications.)

Small logo of the USDASmall logo of the Forest Service