Exploitation
defense is important, but exploiters can evolve to deal with this
- Lethality and intimacy are two axes we can look at to examine the types of exploitation.
- Intimacy is like the number of individuals being exploited. Predators and grazers are both low intimacy since they can effect many individuals. Parasites and Parasitoids are both very intimate since they are effecting one organism
Bats and birds example
- When bats are absent there is a greater increase in the amount of arthropods and herbivory compared to when there is only birds and in the control population. So the bats eat a greater amount of arthropods than birds
Tobacco Example
- High-nicotine tobacco plants have a greater defence against nematode root worms, but the amount of flowers produced is less with greater nicotine content.
- The data is a bit messy but shows that when there is a high amount of nicotine and pressure from nematodes
Constitutive and Induced Defenses
- Constitutive is always present (passive)and induced defenses are triggered in response to stress.