Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe

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Field observations while traveling through the Patagonian steppe over the past 15 years have left me with a clear impression of how well defended many of the plants are against herbivory. The objectives of this paper are to question the prevailing hypothesis that the evolutionary history of herbivor...

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Autor principal: Lauenroth, W. K.
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 1998
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/ecologiaaustral_v008_n02_p211
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Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires
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spelling todo:ecologiaaustral_v008_n02_p2112023-10-03T13:33:13Z Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe Lauenroth, W. K. Field observations while traveling through the Patagonian steppe over the past 15 years have left me with a clear impression of how well defended many of the plants are against herbivory. The objectives of this paper are to question the prevailing hypothesis that the evolutionary history of herbivory in Patagonia has been short and to ask if there is any evidence to support an alternative hypothesis of a long evolutionary history. The analysis is entirely speculative based upon personal observations, discussions with colleagues and a diverse selection of material from the literature. My conclusion from this analysis is that there is at least enough support for an alternative hypothesis to justify proposing it. Furthermore, the long evolutionary history hypothesis is consistent with observations of frequent herbivore defenses among the dominant plants and relative resistance of upland sites to large negative effects of 100 years of herbivory by sheep. 1998-12 PDF Inglés info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/ecologiaaustral_v008_n02_p211
institution Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str I-28
repository_str R-134
collection Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
language Inglés
orig_language_str_mv Inglés
description Field observations while traveling through the Patagonian steppe over the past 15 years have left me with a clear impression of how well defended many of the plants are against herbivory. The objectives of this paper are to question the prevailing hypothesis that the evolutionary history of herbivory in Patagonia has been short and to ask if there is any evidence to support an alternative hypothesis of a long evolutionary history. The analysis is entirely speculative based upon personal observations, discussions with colleagues and a diverse selection of material from the literature. My conclusion from this analysis is that there is at least enough support for an alternative hypothesis to justify proposing it. Furthermore, the long evolutionary history hypothesis is consistent with observations of frequent herbivore defenses among the dominant plants and relative resistance of upland sites to large negative effects of 100 years of herbivory by sheep.
author Lauenroth, W. K.
spellingShingle Lauenroth, W. K.
Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe
author_facet Lauenroth, W. K.
author_sort Lauenroth, W. K.
title Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe
title_short Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe
title_full Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe
title_fullStr Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe
title_full_unstemmed Guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the Patagonian steppe
title_sort guanacos, spiny shrubs and the evolutionary history of grazing in the patagonian steppe
publishDate 1998
url https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/ecologiaaustral_v008_n02_p211
work_keys_str_mv AT lauenrothwk guanacosspinyshrubsandtheevolutionaryhistoryofgrazinginthepatagoniansteppe
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