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<h1 class="title toc-ignore">About</h1>

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<p>We are a global network of scientists working together to understand
how plant–herbivore interactions vary across the planet, across
ecosystems, and across the plant phylogeny. A major focus of our project
is the variability itself. <strong>We aim to understand what leads some
plant species to have high variability and others to have lower
variability in their interactions with herbivores.</strong></p>
<p><img src="photos/IMG_2201.jpg" width="500px" style="display: block; margin: auto;" /></p>
<p>A hallmark of plant-herbivore interactions is that they are
tremendously variable across time and space, and at all levels of
biological organization (among species, among populations, among
individuals, within individuals). Ecologists and evolutionary biologists
have long sought to understand this variation, developing a multitude of
hypotheses to explain and predict this common feature in nature;
however, a unifying consensus has yet to emerge. There are numerous
reasons for this lack of generality: approaches to quantify
plant-herbivore interactions often vary, making results difficult to
compare; data are collected for single plant or insect species,
hindering generality across plant groups; and the context-dependence of
interactions further obscures any common trends at broader scales. In
addition, most studies distill the herbivory they observe into a single
mean value, which ignores how the damage is distributed. The shape of
this distribution is an important aspect of plant-herbivore
interactions, hinting at mechanisms shaping herbivory as well as the
consequences of this herbivory for both plants and insects.</p>
<p>When the full distribution of herbivore feeding damage is reported,
most published studies and personal observations describe a highly
skewed shape, such that most plants experience low levels of damage, and
a small fraction of plants experience disproportionately high levels of
damage.</p>
<div class="figure" style="text-align: center">
<img src="photos/HerbVar_histograms.png" alt="The distribution of herbivory among plants within populations for nine plant species. Each histrogram shows the number of plant individuals with different levels of percent tissue damaged by herbivores." width="600px" />
<p class="caption">
The distribution of herbivory among plants within populations for nine
plant species. Each histrogram shows the number of plant individuals
with different levels of percent tissue damaged by herbivores.
</p>
</div>
<p>Theory suggests that variability and skew in species interactions can
have dramatic ecological and evolutionary consequences. For example,
variability among plants can lead overall herbivore population size to
be greater or less than expected based on average plant quality, and
asymmetric fitness surfaces can lead to over-investment in defensive
traits. Surprisingly, despite the theoretical importance and potential
generality of variability in herbivory, it has received little empirical
attention, limiting our fundamental understanding of how plants and
herbivores interact.</p>
<p><strong>We have three initial research questions:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is high variability (or skewness) a ubiquitous feature of
plant–herbivore interactions?</li>
<li>What types of plants and ecosystems exhibit higher or lower
variability?</li>
<li>What biotic and abiotic factors correlate with the distribution of
herbivore damage?</li>
</ul>
<p>We are answering these questions by collecting data on the
distribution of herbivory on plants. Our work addresses prior
limitations by collecting data via standardized protocols, and
incorporating a broad range of plant species and ecosystems. By
documenting broad patterns in variability (or skewness) in herbivory,
and identifying the factors that correlate with the shape of this
distribution, we hope to provide the field with a new paradigm for
describing plant–herbivore interactions and generate novel hypotheses
about their ecology and evolution.</p>
<p>Please see the <a href="participation.html">Participation page</a>
for guidelines on how to join the Network.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><img src="photos/IMG_0019.jpg" width="500px" style="display: block; margin: auto;" /></p>


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