2022/06/08 by Siddharth Malik, Roberts, Max, Kinzel, Ryan
#cholla #herbivory #middens #plant health #stress #woodrats
paper · doi:10.21973/n38d5t
When the relationships between plants and the herbivores that feed on them are intimately connected, it is often unclear whether the presence of herbivores produces a net benefit or cost for the plants involved. Understanding these impacts is essential for making accurate predictions about how the health of plant communities may be affected by changes in environmental stressors. We investigated the effects of the presence of the desert woodrat (Neotoma lepida)) and its middens on the proportion of stressed stems exhibited by the buckhorn cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa). We chose this study system because it is unclear if the presence of woodrats is beneficial or costly overall for the cholla. Our study did not find any correlation between woodrat presence and the proportion of stressed stems on the cholla. Woodrat middens were more commonly located under larger chollas and larger chollas tended to have higher proportions of stressed stems, but these two results were independent of each other. In light of these results, we argue that more interactions than just herbivory drive the relationship between woodrats and cholla. We recommend that future studies on herbivory investigate a wide variety of potential interactions between the herbivores and plants other than just direct interactions such as herbivory.