Effects of nutrients on autotroph-herbivore interactions

Abstract

The addition of herbivory to the purely autotrophic systems studied in Chapters 3 and 4 is the next step in the progression from simpler to more complex nutrient cycling phenomena. There are two perspectives one can take at this stage. One perspective is to examine how the addition of herbivory alters the dynamics of the nutrient pool-autotroph-detritus systems already studied. The second perspective is to explore how the inclusion of nutrient cycling affects the dynamics of autotroph-herbivore systems. This second perspective is suggested by the fact that there is a vast body of research on autotroph-herbivore systems, generally without explicit consideration of the influence of a limiting nutrient.