Foraging responses of sheep to plant spatial micro-patterns can cause diverse associational effects of focal plant at individual and population levels

1. Multiple-scale foraging decisions by large herbivores can cause associational effects of focal plant individuals neighbored with different species. Spatial micro-patterns between the focal plant and its neighboring species within patches can affect herbivore foraging selectivity at within- and between-patch scale, which may consequently lead to associational plant effects occurring at both plant individual and population levels. However, these associational effects have not been explored together in the plant-herbivore interaction studies.
2. We aim to evaluate how plant spatial micro-pattern within different quality patches mediate herbivore foraging selectivity, thereby affecting the associational effects of focal plant individuals and population.
3. Using sheep as the model herbivore and a medium preferred species as the focal plant, we conducted a manipulative experiment by allowing sheep grazing freely among three different quality patches, each of which consisted of preferred...