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6 - Herbivory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

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Summary

Many kinds of animals eat plants, so it might be reasonable to expect animals to have a significant effect on wetlands. Yet when we visit wetlands, we find that many are green and covered in plants, which could mean that herbivores are relatively unimportant. So just what is the story?

In general, we will see that plants are actually rather well defended from animals. There are two particular ways by which this occurs. First, the plants may have chemical defenses that deter herbivores from eating the plant, or interfere with their ability to digest the plants. Further, many plants have such low nutrient levels in their tissues that they provide a very poor food source and are thereby avoided.

We shall also see that there is evidence that predators may keep the populations of herbivores from becoming large enough to remove the plants from wetlands. The absence of natural predators may, in fact, be what has caused those exceptional cases where herbivores have turned the marsh into mud flats.

Herbivory interacts with other factors. Some processes add biological material to wetlands, and other processes remove it. The former include photosynthesis, growth, and reproduction; the latter include fire, decomposition, and herbivory. Processes that remove biomass are generally considered to be disturbances (Chapter 4). Disturbances can be considered either abiotic (flooding, fire, ice scour, landslides) or biotic (herbivory, burrowing, trampling). In some ways these disturbances are similar; in other ways they are different.

Type
Chapter
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Wetland Ecology
Principles and Conservation
, pp. 160 - 187
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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  • Herbivory
  • Paul A. Keddy
  • Book: Wetland Ecology
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778179.008
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  • Herbivory
  • Paul A. Keddy
  • Book: Wetland Ecology
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778179.008
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Herbivory
  • Paul A. Keddy
  • Book: Wetland Ecology
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778179.008
Available formats
×