July 2, 2013

Predicting novel trophic interactions in a non-native world



Researchers at Cornell University (United States) and Eawag (Switzerland) discovered a general and flexible method to understand how insects may use non-native plants in their diet. The method could accurately predict the use of >400 non-native plants as larval hostplants by 900 different herbivorous butterfly and moth species native to Europe. The results may make the forecasting of novel herbivore communities feasible in order to better understand the fate and impact of introduced plants.