Dear colleagues, We are writing to invite you to join a new effort by the Herbivory Variability Network to quantify patterns of herbivore feeding damage on plant reproductive structures. This new effort is in addition to ongoing surveys of leaf herbivory.
The pattern of damage across flowers, fruits, and seeds is a major gap in our understanding of plant-herbivore interactions at macroecological and macroevolutionary scales. This is important because damage to reproductive structures can have major effects on plant fitness. We are starting to work to fill this gap with a global collaboration of biologists using a standardized protocol to quantify herbivore damage to plant reproductive structures across the plant phylogeny and around the world. We would love for you to join our collaboration by collecting and contributing data using our standardized protocol, which you can find here: https://herbvar-network.github.io/herbvar_manual/protocols/repro_damage.html. You can learn more about our network and view our past work (including our 2023 Science paper) at our website: www.herbvar.org<http://www.herbvar.org> To learn more about joining our collaboration, please see our network manual: https://herbvar-network.github.io/herbvar_manual/ If you would like to join the network or have any questions, please email: william.wet...@montana.edu<mailto:william.wet...@montana.edu> Sincerely, The Herbivory Variability Network Steering Committee Susan Whitehead, Virginia Tech Karen Abbott, Case Western Reserve University Emilio Bruna, University of Florida Ivalú Cacho, UNAM Lee Dyer, University of Nevada, Reno Phil Hahn, University of Florida Brian Inouye, Florida State University Nora Underwood, Florida State University Will Wetzel, Montana State University -- William Wetzel Associate Professor Land Resources & Environmental Sciences Montana State University www.wetzellab.com To unsubscribe from this list please go to https://community.esa.org/confirm/?u=RhPWqPxFwODKvbkiT32nkIqRrsiSgulp
