Bigger and Marvier 1998 / Meta-analysis of the effect of herbivory on plant size / Herbivores significantly affect plant biomass in both terrestrial and aquatic systems, and the effects of invertebrates are larger than vertebrates. / x-1998
Plant biomass/percent cover
N = 246 effect sizes from 60 articles
Gurevitch et al. 2000 / Community level factorial meta-analysis of the interaction between competition and predation on plant mortality, growth, and density / Competitor removal is beneficial for plants both in the presence and absence of herbivory, but plants suffered more from competitors when herbivores were present. / 1974-1994
Plant performance
N = 39 effect sizes from 20 articles
Schmitz et al. 2000 / Community level meta-analysis exploring the effects of herbivores in terrestrial and aquatic trophic cascades; terrestrial studies included only arthropod herbivores. / Trophic cascades exist, but they attenuate so that the effect of predators on plants is reduced because of plant defenses, high species diversity, and compensatory growth. / 1979-2000
Carnivore removal on plant performance
N = 60 effect sizes from 41 articles
Dyer and Coley 2001 / Community level meta-analysis comparing top-down and bottom-up forces in temperate and tropical ecosystems / Herbivores significantly reduce plant biomass in tropical and temperate ecosystems. / 1985-1998
Plant biomass in temperate ecosystems N = 19
Plant biomass in tropical ecosystems N = 13
Halaj and Wise 2001 / Community level meta-analysis exploring the effects of arthropod herbivores and trophic cascades / Predator removal has a fairly large effect on plant damage and a smaller effect on plant biomass, suggesting terrestrial plants may tolerate herbivory with compensatory growth. / 1960-1999
Terrestrial trophic cascades with arthropod herbivores
N = 299 effect sizes from 40 articles
Hawkes and Sullivan 2001 / Factorial meta-analysis examining the effects of herbivory on plant growth under different resource conditions / Monocots increase growth after herbivory in high resource environments, supporting the continuum of responses model (Maschinski and Whitham 1989). Dicot herbs and woody plants grow more after herbivory in low resource environments, supporting the growth rate model (Hiblert et al. 1981). / 1979-1999
Plant growth N = 81 effect sizes from 45 studies
Plant reproduction N = 24 effect sizes from 14 studies
Shurin et al. 2002 / Community level meta-analysis of the strength of trophic cascades in aquatic and terrestrial systems / Aquatic cascades are stronger than terrestrial, but differences within systems are more important than differences between systems in determining cascade strength. / 1983-2002
Aquatic plant community biomass
N = 84 effects sizes from 58 articles
Terrestrial plant community biomass N = 18 effect sizes from 16 articles
Schädler et al. 2003 / Meta-analysis comparing the impact of invertebrate herbivory with plant productivity levels (testing the Fretwell-Oksanen model) / There is an overall negative effect of herbivores on community biomass, but there is limited support that the strength of this effect is highest at intermediate productivity levels. / 1974-2001
Plant biomass
N = 22 effect sizes from 9 articles
Nykänen and Koricheva 2004 / Meta-analysis of the prevalence of induced resistance in woody plants; photosynthesis and growth data were also analyzed to determine if changes in plant quality were accompanied by changes in photosynthesis or growth. The importance of the timing of herbivory was analyzed for experiments conducted in Finland. / Photosynthesis increases with damage.
Growth decreases with damage, particularly for seedlings and mature plants and less so for saplings. Experiments from Finland show early season herbivory is more damaging to growth than late season herbivory. / 1982-2000
Photosynthesis N = 30 effect sizes
Plant growth N = 107 effect sizes
from 68 articles
Borer et al. 2005 / Community level meta-analysis of factors affecting the strength of trophic cascades / Invertebrate herbivores are involved in the stronger trophic cascades than vertebrates (but only one study included an endothermic herbivore). Plant productivity itself does not contribute strongly to cascade strength. / Same dataset as Shurin et al. 2002 with the addition of 12 studies published after 2002
Terrestrial plant community biomass
N = 23 effect sizes
Stiling and Cornelissen 2005 / Meta-analysis of the efficacy of biocontrol / The release of multiple biocontrol species or generalist herbivores has the strongest negative impact on plants. / 1994-2004
Weed performance
N = 71 effect sizes from 26 articles
Morris et al. 2007 / Community level meta-analysis of the effects of two natural enemies, two mutualists, or an enemy and a mutualist on plant performance / Interactions between plant natural enemies negatively affect plants. Herbivores reduce plant performance, and pathogens have an even stronger negative effect. / 1979-2005
Plant performance
N = 186 effects sizes from 62 articles
Barton and Koricheva 2010 / Meta-analysis of ontogenetic changes in plant defenses, tolerance to herbivory, and herbivore preferences for different ontogenetic stages / Tolerance to herbivory does not change with ontogeny, but chemical defenses in woody plants increase during the seedling stage and physical defenses increase during the juvenile stage. Chemical defenses also increase with ontogeny in herbaceous plants. / 1969-2008
Ontogenetic change in plant tolerance N = 38 effects sizes
Ontogenetic change in plant defense N = 376 effects sizes from 116 articles
Chun et al. 2010 / Meta-analysis comparing the responses of native and invasive species to herbivory / Damage decreases the performance of native and invasive species, but invasive plants are less tolerant of damage than native species. / 1994-2010
Invasive and native plant performance
N = 35 effect sizes from 9 articles
Oduor et al. 2010 / Meta-analyses of the effects of exotic vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores on the performance or population size of both native and exotic plants / Exotic invertebrate herbivores negatively affect the performance of both native and introduced plants while exotic vertebrates increase the performance of exotic plants and decrease the performance of native plants. / 1990-2008
Native and exotic plant performance or population size
N = 174 effect sizes from 26 articles
Zvevera et al. 2010 / Meta-analysis of the effects of sap-feeding insects on woody plant performance / Sap-feeders reduce plant growth, photosynthesis, and, to a lesser extent, reproduction. Seedlings are more affected than older trees. Generalist sap-feeders have a stronger negative effect on plants than specialist feeders. / x-2009
Plant performance
N = 272 effect sizes from 52 articles
Supplementary Table 1. Summary of published meta-analyses investigating the role of herbivores on plant performance.