Inga acuminata leaves damaged by plant-eating insects. New results published in Science by Dale Forrister, doctoral student at the University of Utah, suggest that, during the sapling stage of tropical trees in the genus, Inga, pressure from leaf-feeding insects is a critical driver of negative-density-dependent interactions and, therefore, the maintenance of tropical diversity. The study was done in at the ForestGEO long-term forest monitoring site on Barro Colorado Island in Panama.
Credit: Steve Paton, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
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