Description

This book explores the complex interactions between plants, their herbivores and natural enemies. Multitrophic Level Interactions explores the complex interactions between plants, their herbivores, and the herbivores' natural enemies. Determining the relative importance of top-down effects (control by predators) and bottom-up effects (control by resources), it will be an important guide to future research for all ecologists. Multitrophic Level Interactions explores the complex interactions between plants, their herbivores, and the herbivores' natural enemies. Determining the relative importance of top-down effects (control by predators) and bottom-up effects (control by resources), it will be an important guide to future research for all ecologists. The multitrophic level approach to ecology addresses the complexity of food webs much more realistically than the traditional focus on simple systems and interactions. Only in the last few decades have ecologists become interested in the nature of more complex systems including tritrophic interactions between plants, herbivores and natural enemies. Plants may directly influence the behaviour of their herbivores' natural enemies, ecological interactions between two species are often indirectly mediated by a third species, landscape structure directly affects local tritrophic interactions and below-ground food webs are vital to above-ground organisms. The relative importance of top-down effects (control by predators) and bottom-up effects (control by resources) must also be determined. These interactions are explored in this exciting volume by expert researchers from a variety of ecological fields. This book provides a much-needed synthesis of multitrophic level interactions and serves as a guide for future research for ecologists of all descriptions. 1. Multitrophic level interactions - an introduction T. Tscharntke and B. A. Hawkins; 2. Plant genetic variation in tritrophic interactions J. D. Hare; 3. Multitrophic/multi-species mutualistic interactions: the role of non-mutualists in shaping and mediating mutualisms J. L. Bronstein and P. Barbosa; 4. Tritrophic interactions in tropical and temperate communities L. A. Dyer and P. D. Coley; 5. Endophytic fungi and interactions amongst host plant, herbivores and natural enemies S. H. Faeth and T. L. Bultman; 6. Multitrophic interactions in space: metacommunity dynamics in fragmented landscapes S. van Nouhuys and I. Hanski; 7. The chemical ecology of plant-caterpillar-parasitoid interactions T. C. J. Turlings, S. Gouinguené, T. Degan and M. E. Fritzsche-Hoballah; 8. Canopy architecture and multitrophic interactions J. Casas and I. Djemai; 9. Tritrophic below- and above-ground interactions in succession V. K. Brown and A. C. Gange; 10. Multitrophic interactions in decomposer food webs S. Scheu and H. Setälä; Index. "Each chapter is technical and well referenced, and makes good use of figures and tables to clarify points. An excellent reference book that also meets its goal as a guide for future research in trophic interactions." Northeastern Naturalist "Well written and edited...a powerful guide for the next generation of food web studies, in both pure and applied ecology. This book is an interesting, updated review opening many questions about the role of complexity in food webs and I recommend its reading to both graduate students and researchers interested in the ecology and evolution of biotic interactions." Ecoscience