• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: The global distribution of diet breadth in insect herbivores
  • Contributor: Forister, Matthew L.; Novotny, Vojtech; Panorska, Anna K.; Baje, Leontine; Basset, Yves; Butterill, Philip T.; Cizek, Lukas; Coley, Phyllis D.; Dem, Francesca; Diniz, Ivone R.; Drozd, Pavel; Fox, Mark; Glassmire, Andrea E.; Hazen, Rebecca; Hrcek, Jan; Jahner, Joshua P.; Kaman, Ondrej; Kozubowski, Tomasz J.; Kursar, Thomas A.; Lewis, Owen T.; Lill, John; Marquis, Robert J.; Miller, Scott E.; Morais, Helena C.; [...]
  • Published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015
  • Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (2015) 2, Seite 442-447
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1423042112
  • ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: Significance Dietary specialization determines an organism’s resource base as well as impacts on host or prey species. There are important basic and applied reasons to ask why some animals have narrow diets and others are more generalized, and if different regions of the Earth support more specialized interactions. We investigated site-specific host records for more than 7,500 species of insect herbivores. Although host specialists predominate, the proportion of specialists is affected by the diversity of hosts and shifts globally, supporting predictions of more exclusive tropical interactions. These results not only affect our understanding of the ecology of food webs, but also have implications for how they respond to environmental change, as well as for ecosystem management and restoration.
  • Access State: Open Access