Download Types of Leaf Herbivority in Communities

Types of Leaf
Herbivority in
Communities
Cameron, Nate , Crystal,
Puja, Rachael, Barney
Atlantic Forest, Brazil
SEE-U 2000
Introduction

The principle type of herbivores
that affect leaves in plant
communities are:
• scrapers-start inside of leaf and work
way out
• miners-eat only the mesophyll of leaf
• cutters-moves from edges to the
inside, leaving plant veins
• suckers-attach to stem to obtain H20
and nutrients
Introduction(II)



These herbivores are found in
different plant communities
Some are more predominant
than others
The effect of herbivores may
decrease productivity of certain
plant species.
Hypotheses


Null Hypothesis- the type of
herbivore predation is the same
between two sample sites.
Alternative Hypothesis-the type
of herbivore predation will vary
between the two sample sites.
Methodology



Two groups collected data by
identifying plant species
affected by herbivores
The predominant type of
predation was determined for
each plant species
A comparison was made
between the two sample sites
Frequency Distribution of the
Types of Predation Found
Between Sites
number of plant
species
30
25
Chi squared value: 1.59
20
15
10
5
,
0
scrapers
cutters
miners
types of predation
site 1
site 2
scrapers and
cutters
Number of species vs. types of predation at
site 1. (Group A and Group B)
number of species
30
0.243 = Sorensen index
of diversity
25
20
group a
group b
15
10
5
0
scrapers
cutters
miners
types of predation
cutters and
scrapers
Conclusion



The scrapers and cutters were the
predominant types of herbivores
Typically, older leaves were more
affected by herbivore predation than
younger leaves on the same plant
With a Chi-squared value of 1.59
(with 3 degrees of freedom), we
accepted the null-hypothesis