Citation
Analysis
Effect of herbivory
Dataset coverage and sample sizes
Bigger and Marvier
1998
Meta-analysis of the effect of herbivory on
plant size
Herbivores significantly affect plant biomass in
both terrestrial and aquatic systems, and the
effects of invertebrates are larger than
vertebrates.
x-1998
Plant biomass/percent cover
N = 246 effect sizes from 60 articles
Gurevitch et al. 2000
Community level factorial meta-analysis of
the interaction between competition and
predation on plant mortality, growth, and
density
Competitor removal is beneficial for plants both
in the presence and absence of herbivory, but
plants suffered more from competitors when
herbivores were present.
1974-1994
Plant performance
N = 39 effect sizes from 20 articles
Schmitz et al. 2000
Community level meta-analysis exploring
the effects of herbivores in terrestrial and
aquatic trophic cascades; terrestrial studies
included only arthropod herbivores.
Trophic cascades exist, but they attenuate so that
the effect of predators on plants is reduced
because of plant defenses, high species diversity,
and compensatory growth.
1979-2000
Carnivore removal on plant
performance
N = 60 effect sizes from 41 articles
Dyer and Coley 2001
Community level meta-analysis comparing
top-down and bottom-up forces in
temperate and tropical ecosystems
Herbivores significantly reduce plant biomass in
tropical and temperate ecosystems.
1985-1998
Plant biomass in temperate
ecosystems N = 19
Plant biomass in tropical ecosystems
N = 13
Halaj and Wise 2001
Community level meta-analysis exploring
the effects of arthropod herbivores and
trophic cascades
Predator removal has a fairly large effect on plant
damage and a smaller effect on plant biomass,
suggesting terrestrial plants may tolerate
herbivory with compensatory growth.
1960-1999
Terrestrial trophic cascades with
arthropod herbivores
N = 299 effect sizes from 40 articles
Hawkes and Sullivan
2001
Factorial meta-analysis examining the
effects of herbivory on plant growth under
different resource conditions
Monocots increase growth after herbivory in high
resource environments, supporting the continuum
of responses model (Maschinski and Whitham
1989). Dicot herbs and woody plants grow more
after herbivory in low resource environments,
supporting the growth rate model (Hiblert et al.
1981).
1979-1999
Plant growth N = 81 effect sizes from
45 studies
Plant reproduction N = 24 effect sizes
from 14 studies
Shurin et al. 2002
Community level meta-analysis of the
strength of trophic cascades in aquatic and
terrestrial systems
Aquatic cascades are stronger than terrestrial, but
differences within systems are more important
than differences between systems in determining
cascade strength.
1983-2002
Aquatic plant community biomass
N = 84 effects sizes from 58 articles
Terrestrial plant community biomass
N = 18 effect sizes from 16 articles
Schädler et al. 2003
Meta-analysis comparing the impact of
invertebrate herbivory with plant
productivity levels (testing the FretwellOksanen model)
There is an overall negative effect of herbivores
on community biomass, but there is limited
support that the strength of this effect is highest at
intermediate productivity levels.
1974-2001
Plant biomass
N = 22 effect sizes from 9 articles
Nykänen and
Koricheva 2004
Meta-analysis of the prevalence of induced
resistance in woody plants; photosynthesis
and growth data were also analyzed to
determine if changes in plant quality were
accompanied by changes in photosynthesis
or growth. The importance of the timing of
herbivory was analyzed for experiments
conducted in Finland.
Photosynthesis increases with damage.
Growth decreases with damage, particularly for
seedlings and mature plants and less so for
saplings. Experiments from Finland show early
season herbivory is more damaging to growth
than late season herbivory.
1982-2000
Photosynthesis N = 30 effect sizes
Plant growth N = 107 effect sizes
from 68 articles
Borer et al. 2005
Community level meta-analysis of factors
affecting the strength of trophic cascades
Invertebrate herbivores are involved in the
stronger trophic cascades than vertebrates (but
only one study included an endothermic
herbivore). Plant productivity itself does not
contribute strongly to cascade strength.
Same dataset as Shurin et al. 2002
with the addition of 12 studies
published after 2002
Terrestrial plant community biomass
N = 23 effect sizes
Stiling and
Cornelissen 2005
Meta-analysis of the efficacy of biocontrol
The release of multiple biocontrol species or
generalist herbivores has the strongest negative
impact on plants.
1994-2004
Weed performance
N = 71 effect sizes from 26 articles
Morris et al. 2007
Community level meta-analysis of the
effects of two natural enemies, two
mutualists, or an enemy and a mutualist on
plant performance
Interactions between plant natural enemies
negatively affect plants. Herbivores reduce plant
performance, and pathogens have an even
stronger negative effect.
1979-2005
Plant performance
N = 186 effects sizes from 62 articles
Barton and Koricheva
2010
Meta-analysis of ontogenetic changes in
plant defenses, tolerance to herbivory, and
herbivore preferences for different
ontogenetic stages
Tolerance to herbivory does not change with
ontogeny, but chemical defenses in woody plants
increase during the seedling stage and physical
defenses increase during the juvenile stage.
Chemical defenses also increase with ontogeny in
herbaceous plants.
1969-2008
Ontogenetic change in plant tolerance
N = 38 effects sizes
Ontogenetic change in plant defense
N = 376 effects sizes from 116
articles
Chun et al. 2010
Meta-analysis comparing the responses of
native and invasive species to herbivory
Damage decreases the performance of native and
invasive species, but invasive plants are less
1994-2010
Invasive and native plant
tolerant of damage than native species.
performance
N = 35 effect sizes from 9 articles
Oduor et al. 2010
Meta-analyses of the effects of exotic
vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores on
the performance or population size of both
native and exotic plants
Exotic invertebrate herbivores negatively affect
the performance of both native and introduced
plants while exotic vertebrates increase the
performance of exotic plants and decrease the
performance of native plants.
1990-2008
Native and exotic plant performance
or population size
N = 174 effect sizes from 26 articles
Zvevera et al. 2010
Meta-analysis of the effects of sap-feeding
insects on woody plant performance
Sap-feeders reduce plant growth, photosynthesis,
and, to a lesser extent, reproduction. Seedlings
are more affected than older trees. Generalist
sap-feeders have a stronger negative effect on
plants than specialist feeders.
x-2009
Plant performance
N = 272 effect sizes from 52 articles
Supplementary Table 1. Summary of published meta-analyses investigating the role of herbivores on plant performance.