Mechanisms, ecological consequences and agricultural implications of tri-trophic interactions

Abstract

Recent research bridging mechanistic and ecological approaches demonstrates that plant attributes can affect herbivores, natural enemies of herbivores, and their interaction. Such effects may be genetically variable among plants and/or induced in individual plants by herbivore attack, and are mediated by primary plant attributes (i.e. nutritional quality and physical structure) and defense-related products (i.e. secondary chemicals and plant volatiles), and may be modified by human activity (e.g. by the introduction of Bacillus thuringiensis). The study of tri-trophic interactions is important in order to understand natural species interactions and to manipulate these interactions in pest control.