Herbivory
What is it?
The consumption of plant material and a form of disturbance
Importance
It generates a measurable change in: biomass, diversity, and species composition.
Controls:
Predation, forage ability, and plant defences (thorns, tannins, and toxins)
Bottom up: forage ability and plant defenses
Top down: predators
Abundance and distribution:
The three factors rely on one another: soils, rainfall and herbivory (with contribution of vegetation)
It can be seen in this graph that mean precipitation
is directly proportional to the biomass of large
ungulates. The soil types are also directly
proportional with increase in nutrient availability.
Many of the springbok and blesbok population were
hunted and killed in the free state around 1896. This
resulted in a drastic drop in herbivore biomass and these
populations are no longer free-living in the wild
What is it?
The consumption of plant material and a form of disturbance
Importance
It generates a measurable change in: biomass, diversity, and species composition.
Controls:
Predation, forage ability, and plant defences (thorns, tannins, and toxins)
Bottom up: forage ability and plant defenses
Top down: predators
Abundance and distribution:
The three factors rely on one another: soils, rainfall and herbivory (with contribution of vegetation)
It can be seen in this graph that mean precipitation
is directly proportional to the biomass of large
ungulates. The soil types are also directly
proportional with increase in nutrient availability.
Many of the springbok and blesbok population were
hunted and killed in the free state around 1896. This
resulted in a drastic drop in herbivore biomass and these
populations are no longer free-living in the wild
