Historical vertebrate herbivory drives ontogenetic shifts in plant defense across oceanic islands
Abstract
Islands with contrasting herbivore histories provide a natural framework to investigate the evolution of plant defenses. Theory predicts that on islands with historically intense vertebrate herbivory, juveniles maintain strong defenses while adults may reduce them once out of reach, whereas islands lacking vertebrate browsers show minimal ontogenetic differences and generally lower defenses.
Alternatively, when extinct herbivores were particularly large, selection might also favor stronger adult defenses. Despite these theoretical expectations, empirical tests across multiple island systems remain scarce. In this study, we quantified leaf physical, chemical, and nutritional traits related to resistance and palatability in juvenile and adult individuals of 60 woody plant species across 33 families from six archipelagos: three with extinct large herbivores (New Zealand, New Caledonia, Mauritius) and three without vertebrate browsers (the Canary Islands, Azores, Channel Islands of California). We found that species from islands with historical herbivory exhibited overall lower defenses, with trait expression strongly shaped by ontogeny. Adults displayed higher phenolic
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BibTeX
@article{moreira2026historical,
title = {{Historical vertebrate herbivory drives ontogenetic shifts in plant defense across oceanic islands}},
author = {Xoaquín Moreira and Luis Abdala‐roberts and Cláudia Baider and Kevin C Burns and Lydia S Dean and F B Vincent Florens and Cristina González‐montelongo and Sierra N Hellwitz and Thomas Ibanez and Beatriz Lago‐núñez and Sofía Martínez and Carla Pastoriza and Silvia Portela and María José Ramírez and Nereida M Rancel‐rodríguez and Irene Virseda and Kailen A Mooney},
journal = {Ecology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1002/ecy.70460},
url = {https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05735491v1},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Historical vertebrate herbivory drives ontogenetic shifts in plant defense across oceanic islands
AU - Xoaquín Moreira
AU - Luis Abdala‐roberts
AU - Cláudia Baider
AU - Kevin C Burns
AU - Lydia S Dean
AU - F B Vincent Florens
AU - Cristina González‐montelongo
AU - Sierra N Hellwitz
AU - Thomas Ibanez
AU - Beatriz Lago‐núñez
AU - Sofía Martínez
AU - Carla Pastoriza
AU - Silvia Portela
AU - María José Ramírez
AU - Nereida M Rancel‐rodríguez
AU - Irene Virseda
AU - Kailen A Mooney
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
JO - Ecology
DO - 10.1002/ecy.70460
UR - https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05735491v1
AB - Islands with contrasting herbivore histories provide a natural framework to investigate the evolution of plant defenses. Theory predicts that on islands with historically intense vertebrate herbivory, juveniles maintain strong defenses while adults may reduce them once out of reach, whereas islands lacking vertebrate browsers show minimal ontogenetic differences and generally lower defenses. Alternatively, when extinct herbivores were particularly large, selection might also favor stronger adult defenses. Despite these theoretical expectations, empirical tests across multiple island systems remain scarce. In this study, we quantified leaf physical, chemical, and nutritional traits related to resistance and palatability in juvenile and adult individuals of 60 woody plant species across 33 families from six archipelagos: three with extinct large herbivores (New Zealand, New Caledonia, Mauritius) and three without vertebrate browsers (the Canary Islands, Azores, Channel Islands of California). We found that species from islands with historical herbivory exhibited overall lower defenses, with trait expression strongly shaped by ontogeny. Adults displayed higher phenolic
SN - 0012-9658
SN - 1939-9170
ER -