A thorny issue: woody plant defence and growth in an East African savanna

1. Recent work suggests that savanna woody plant species separate into two different strategies based on their defences against herbivory; a low nutrient/high chemical defence strategy and a nutrition paired with mostly architectural defences strategy. The concept that chemical and structural defences can augment each other and do not necessarily trade-off has emanated from this work. In this study we examine woody plant defence strategies, how these respond to herbivore removal and how they affect plant growth in an East African savanna.
2. At three paired long-term exclosure sites with high browser and mixed feeder densities at Mpala Ranch, Kenya we investigated: a) whether defences employed by the dominant fine- and broad-leaved woody savanna species form defence strategies and if these align with previously proposed strategies, b) how nine key plant defence traits respond to herbivore removal and c) how effective the different defence strategies are at protecting against intense h...