Global study of plant-herbivore interactions reveals similar patterns of herbivory across native and non-native plants

A core hypothesis in invasion and community ecology is that species interaction patterns should differ between native and non-native species due to non-native species lacking a long evolutionary history in their resident communities. Numerous studies testing this hypothesis yield conflicting results, often focusing on mean interaction rates and overlooking the substantial within-population variability in species interactions. We explored plant-herbivore interactions in populations of native and established non-native plant species by quantifying differences in mean herbivory and added a novel approach by comparing within-population variability in herbivory. We include as covariates latitude, plant richness, plant growth form, and cover. Using leaf herbivory data from the Herbivory Variability Network for 788 plant populations spanning 504 species globally distributed, we found no overall differences in mean herbivory or variability between native and non-native plants. These results sug..., , # Global study of plant-herbivore interactions reveals similar patterns of herbivory across native and non-native plants

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.2jm63xt1w](10.5061/dryad.2jm63xt1w)

## Description of the data and file structure

These datasets and set of scripts were produced using data collected by The Herbivory Variability Network. We used the data and scripts to perform a global comparison of plant-herbivore interactions between populations of native and non-native species using 788 surveys of 504 plant species. We include as covariates latitude, plant richness, plant growth form and cover to test for the effect of environmental factors in plant-herbivore interactions for both groups of plants. 

The website of the network is [herbvar.org](https://herbvar.org).

### Files and variables

#### File: 01_HV_Native_status_Load_data_and_build_tree.R

**Description:** Loads the data files, builds the phylogenetic tree, and sets priors for all beta models

#### File: 02_HV_Native_status...,