The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Herbivory makes major contributions to ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling in tropical forests
Abstract
The functional role of herbivores in tropical rainforests remains poorly understood. We quantified the magnitude of, and underlying controls on, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycled by invertebrate herbivory along a 2800 m elevational gradient in the tropical Andes spanning 12°C mean annual temperature. We find, firstly, that leaf area loss is greater at warmer sites with lower foliar phosphorus, and secondly, that the estimated herbivore‐mediated flux of foliar nitrogen and phosphorus from plants to soil via leaf area loss is similar to, or greater than, other major sources of these nutrients in tropical forests. Finally, we estimate that herbivores consume a significant portion of plant carbon, potentially causing major shifts in the pattern of plant and soil carbon cycling. We conclude that future shifts in herbivore abundance and activity as a result of environmental change could have major impacts on soil fertility and ecosystem carbon sequestration in tropical forests.
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Cites
Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude
Deutsch, C. A., Tewksbury, J. J., Huey, R. B., Sheldon, K. S., Ghalambor, C. K., Haak, D. C., & Martin, P. R. (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0709472105 · Cited by 3,840
Bale, J. S., Masters, G. J., Hodkinson, I. D., Awmack, C., Bezemer, T. M., Brown, V. K., Butterfield, J., Buse, A., Coulson, J. C., Farrar, J., et al. (2002) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2486.2002.00451.x · Cited by 2,775 · cited 3×
“Given the mounting evidence for a narrow thermal range of ectotherms in the tropics, the presence of some direct temperature regulation on herbivore population activity and/or abundance appears highly plausible (Bale et al. 2002; Deutsch et al. 2008).”
BackgroundHerbivore-mediated linkages between aboveground and belowground communities
Bardgett, R. D., & Wardle, D. A. (2003) · Ecology · doi:10.1890/02-0274 · Cited by 1,173
PHOENIX, G. K., HICKS, W. K., CINDERBY, S., KUYLENSTIERNA, J. C. I., STOCK, W. D., DENTENER, F. J., GILLER, K. E., AUSTIN, A. T., LEFROY, R. D. B., GIMENO, B. S., et al. (2006) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01104.x · Cited by 581
The legacy of the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions on nutrient availability in Amazonia
Doughty, C. E., Wolf, A., & Malhi, Y. (2013) · Nature Geoscience · doi:10.1038/ngeo1895 · Cited by 211
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Cited by
Mayer, M., Prescott, C. E., Abaker, W. E. A., Augusto, L., Cécillon, L., Ferreira, G. W. D., James, J., Jandl, R., Katzensteiner, K., Laclau, J.-P., et al. (2020) · Forest Ecology and Management · doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118127 · Cited by 748
Insects as drivers of ecosystem processes
Yang, L. H., & Gratton, C. (2014) · Current Opinion in Insect Science · doi:10.1016/j.cois.2014.06.004 · Cited by 324
Latitude, productivity and species richness
Gillman, L. N., Wright, S. D., Cusens, J., McBride, P. D., Malhi, Y., & Whittaker, R. J. (2015) · Global Ecology and Biogeography · doi:10.1111/geb.12245 · Cited by 321
Self-citationBrewer, K. M., & Gaudin, A. C. M. (2020) · Soil Biology and Biochemistry · doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.107936 · Cited by 99
Feedback in tropical forests of the Anthropocene
Flores, B. M., & Staal, A. (2022) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/gcb.16293 · Cited by 59
Metadata
- Authors
- Metcalfe, D. B., Asner, G. P., Martin, R. E., Silva Espejo, J. E., Huasco, W. H., Farfán Amézquita, F. F., Carranza‐Jimenez, L., Galiano Cabrera, D. F., Baca, L. D., Sinca, F., Huaraca Quispe, L. P., Taype, I. A., Mora, L. E., Dávila, A. R., Solórzano, M. M., Puma Vilca, B. L., Laupa Román, J. M., Guerra Bustios, P. C., Revilla, N. S., Tupayachi, R., Girardin, C. A. J., Doughty, C. E., & Malhi, Y.
- Venue
- Ecology Letters
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-12-26
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 324-332
- ISSN
- 1461-023X (ISSN-L)
- 1461-0248
- OpenAlex
- W2164695636
- Cited by
- 248
- References
- 5
- FWCI
- 27.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Herbivory makes major contributions to ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling in tropical forests. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1111/ele.12233
- The paper
- Metcalfe, D. B., Asner, G. P., Martin, R. E., Silva Espejo, J. E., Huasco, W. H., Farfán Amézquita, F. F., Carranza‐Jimenez, L., Galiano Cabrera, D. F., Baca, L. D., Sinca, F., Huaraca Quispe, L. P., Taype, I. A., Mora, L. E., Dávila, A. R., Solórzano, M. M., Puma Vilca, B. L., Laupa Román, J. M., Guerra Bustios, P. C., Revilla, N. S., . . . Malhi, Y. (2014). Herbivory makes major contributions to ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling in tropical forests. Ecology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12233
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
