Herbivore Population Feeding Pressure on Plant Hosts: Feedback Evolution and Host Conservation

Abstract

Various herbivore population control mechanism and evolution are examined and how these function interdependently to achieve some equilibrium in the economy of herbivore-plant systems. In the long-term, it is proposed that the control of exploiter populations generally changes from being dominated by density-dependent competition and patchiness to density-dependent genetic feedback and natural enemy controls. The model postulates that herbivore and other parasite numbers are often controlled by a feedback evolutionary mechanism interdependent with the other density-dependent population controls.