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When Herbivore Numbers Drop, Plants Ditch Thorny Defenses (3 of 3)

Reports and Proceedings

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

When Herbivore Numbers Drop, Plants Ditch Thorny Defenses (3 of 3)

image: An anxious herd of female impala approaches a cluster of trees. The impala's interaction with trees confers a profound tension: tree cover is a source of food for impala and where risk from predators is greatest. Because of this tension, tree communities occurring near the open, safe areas that are heavily used by impala become dominated by thorny trees, while impala's preferred and poorly-defended forage thrives in dense thickets where carnivores hunt. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Oct. 17, 2014, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Adam T. Ford at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and colleagues was titled, "Large carnivores make savanna tree communities less thorny." view more 

Credit: [Credit: AT Ford]


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