While plant defense against herbivory is primarily thought to occur following attack, there is also evidence that plants can detect and respond to pre-attack cues. These cues include chemicals released from damaged conspecifics and kairomones, non-attack-related substances emitted by an herbivore that plants can detect and use to their benefit. It is unknown, however, whether or how plants react to the interaction of these pre...

Identifying the factors that affect host–parasite interactions is essential for understanding the ecology and dynamics of vector‐borne diseases and may be an important component of predicting human disease risk. Characteristics of hosts themselves (e.g., body condition, host behavior, immune defenses) may affect the likelihood of parasitism. However, despite highly variable rates of parasitism and infection in wild populations...

Seeds and seedlings are particularly vulnerable to herbivory. Unlike mature plants, which can wait until herbivory is experienced to induce defense, seeds and seedlings face mortality if they wait. Slug mucus functions as a kairomone, a non-attack-related substance emitted by consumers that is detected by a prey species (in this case, plants). While snail mucus has been shown to induce defense in seedlings, it is not widely co...

Seasonal variation in animal activity influences fitness and the intensity of ecological interactions (e.g., competition, predation), yet aspects of global change in the Anthropocene may catalyze shifts in seasonal activity. Invasive plants are components of global change and can modify animal daily activity, but their influence on animal seasonal activity is less understood. We examined how invasive woody shrubs (Autumn olive...

Seed dispersal directly affects plant establishment, gene flow and fitness. Understanding patterns in seed dispersal is, therefore, fundamental to understanding plant ecology and evolution, as well as addressing challenges of extinction and global change. Our ability to understand dispersal is limited because seeds may be dispersed by multiple agents, and the effectiveness of these agents can be highly variable both among and...

Recently plant biologists have documented that plants, like animals, engage in many activities that can be considered as behaviors, although plant biologists currently lack a conceptual framework to understand these processes. Borrowing the well‐established framework developed by psychologists, we propose that plant behaviors can be constructively modeled by identifying four distinct components: (1) a cue or stimulus that prov...

Recent evidence suggests that invasive exotic plants can provide novel habitats that alter animal behavior. However, it remains unclear whether classic animal‐habitat associations that influence the spatial distribution of plant‐animal interactions, such as small mammal use of downed woody debris, persist in invaded habitats. We removed an invasive exotic shrub (buckthorn, Rhamnus cathartica ) from 7 of 15 plots in Wisconsin....

Despite increasing evidence that herbivory on a focal plant may hinge upon the identity of its neighbors, it is not clear whether predictable mechanisms govern the nature and magnitude of such associational effects. Using a factorial field experiment replicated at 14 sites across 80,000 hectares, we evaluated the mechanisms driving associational effects between two plant species mediated by grasshopper herbivores. Our experime...

Habitat fragmentation can create significant impediments to dispersal. A technique to increase dispersal between otherwise isolated fragments is the use of corridors. Although previous studies have compared dispersal between connected fragments to dispersal between unconnected fragments, it remains unknown how dispersal between fragments connected by a corridor compares to dispersal in unfragmented landscapes. To assess the ex...

Humans dominate many important Earth system processes including the nitrogen (N) cycle. Atmospheric N deposition affects fundamental processes such as carbon cycling, climate regulation, and biodiversity, and could result in changes to fundamental Earth system processes such as primary production. Both modelling and experimentation have suggested a role for anthropogenically altered N deposition in increasing productivity, nev...

Aim Large‐scale patterns linking energy availability, biological productivity and diversity form a central focus of ecology. Despite evidence that the activity and abundance of animals may be limited by climatic variables associated with regional biological productivity (e.g. mean annual precipitation and annual actual evapotranspiration), it is unclear whether plant–granivore interactions are themselves influenced by these cl...