Adaptations of insects to disturbance.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-1985
Abstract
Emphasises the mechanisms and cues responsible for insect population responses to disturbance and to post-disturbance changes in community organisation - particularly considering insect dispersal and host selection behaviour, and resource quality and quantity. Disturbances can trigger exponential population growth in insect species that exploit such conditions, ie insects can themselves exacerbate disturbance conditions. Attention focuses on increased tree mortality resulting from such insect population growth and the resulting predisposition of such patches to subsequent disturbance. Selection among individual insects by disturbance can lead to interactions as the community level that could mitigate disturbance and contribute further to individual fitness, eg by concentrating herbivory on weakened or injured plants thereby favouring disturbance-tolerant species: insects may thus serve as regulators of ecosystem productivity. -P.J.Jarvis
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics
First Page
235
Last Page
252
Recommended Citation
Schowalter, T. (1985). Adaptations of insects to disturbance.. The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics, 235-252. Retrieved from https://repository.lsu.edu/entomology_pubs/1376