Do non-native plants contribute to insect declines?

68Citations
Citations of this article
164Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

1. With evidence of significant global insect declines mounting, urgent calls to mitigate such declines are also increasing. Efforts to reverse insect declines will only succeed, however, if we correctly identify and address their major causes. 2. One potential cause that has received little mention is the global spread of non-native plants as invasive species, agroforestry products, and ornamental plants. 3. Here we (a) review the theory predicting that most insect herbivores are evolutionarily constrained to use a fraction of available plant lineages; (b) document the extent to which nonnative plants have displaced native plant communities around the globe; (c) examine the evidence that non-native plants reduce insect abundance and diversity; and (d) suggest guidelines for measuring the impact of non-native plants on insect populations. 4. We conclude that host range expansions to non-natives do occur among many insect herbivores but not at the frequency required to prevent insect declines when non-native plants replace native plant communities. Accordingly, we suggest that curbing the spread and use of non- native plants at local, national, and international scales will be a necessary and effective way to reduce some insect declines.

References Powered by Scopus

Defaunation in the Anthropocene

2912Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

2282Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The evolution of ecological specialization

1804Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Urbanisation drivers and underlying mechanisms of terrestrial insect diversity loss in cities

106Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cascading extinctions as a hidden driver of insect decline

77Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Are declines in insects and insectivorous birds related?

57Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Tallamy, D. W., Narango, D. L., & Mitchell, A. B. (2021). Do non-native plants contribute to insect declines? Ecological Entomology, 46(4), 729–742. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12973

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 43

63%

Researcher 15

22%

Lecturer / Post doc 6

9%

Professor / Associate Prof. 4

6%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 51

63%

Environmental Science 23

28%

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Bi... 5

6%

Earth and Planetary Sciences 2

2%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Mentions
Blog Mentions: 2
News Mentions: 7
Social Media
Shares, Likes & Comments: 32

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free