Herbivores can benefit both plants and their pathogens through selective herbivory on diseased tissue

Infectious disease can be a key driver of community structure, particularly when pathogens affect foundation species. Seagrasses are foundation species that form meadows along coasts worldwide, controlling sediment deposition and biogeochemical cycling while supporting a diverse community of fish and invertebrates. These plants are affected by wasting diseases that cause necrotic tissue lesions. These lesions could alter seagrass value as food, habitat, and mediators of ecosystem processes, though biotic influences on disease dynamics are still not well understood. We explored the role of one eelgrass herbivore in affecting the development of wasting disease.
We measured the severity and prevalence of eelgrass wasting disease in a meadow across two summers through repeated field surveys. We assessed the role of a common eelgrass herbivore in affecting disease spread and growth using microcosm and mesocosm experiments. We further explored herbivore preference in a choice feeding trial, w..., , , This readme file was generated on 2024-04-02 by Naomi A. Murray

GENERAL INFORMATION

Title of Dataset: Herbivores can benefit both plants and their pathogens through selective herbivory on diseased tissue

Author Information

Name: Naomi Murray
ORCID: 0000-0002-4343-6264
Institution: University of California, Davis
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Co-author Information

Name: Jay Stachowicz
ORCID: 0000-0003-2735-0564
Institution: University of California, Davis
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Date of data collection: between 2019-06 and 2021-09
Geographic location of data collection: Bodega Bay, California, USA

DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

File List:

\- Lesions_2020 - field disease severity data from summers of 2019 and 2020
\- feeding_trial_FINAL - feeding preference data for Pentidotea resecata as described in the methods section
\- penetrometer_2020 - leaf toughness data from plants used in the P. resecata feeding tr...