How important are birds for maintaining the integrity of ecological communities?
Birds provide many services to the forest, but we usually think of them only as pollinators, seed dispersers, or eaters of mosquitoes. However, birds have other important relationships with forest plants and insects. For example, a study in Missouri found that young trees experienced high levels of herbivory Herbivory occurs when plant material is consumed. In severe cases, outbreaks of insect herbivory can degrade entire forests. Detrimental effects: • removes photosynthetic area • diseases can be transmitted Temperate and tropical forest comparison: • Insect outbreaks are more common in temperate forests. • Most herbivory in the tropical forest canopy is from insects. • This is not surprising, since over 90% of the insect biomass lives in the canopy. • In temperate forests, only 10% of the insects live in the canopy. from insects when birds were experimentally kept away from them. The damage was severe enough to slow the growth of these young trees when measured over 2 years. Thus, b
