Mammalian herbivores affect leafhoppers associated with specific plant functional types at different timescales

1. Theory predicts that mammalian herbivores affect the quantity and quality of plants on which they preferentially feed in the short term. In the longer term, they can promote either preferred or less preferred plants, depending on whether preferred plants are adapted or sensitive to grazing. Less clear are the short- and long-term responses of herbivorous insects to mammalian herbivory, and how these responses depend on the specific plants or plant functional types on which the insects feed. 2. We progressively excluded large, medium, and small mammals for five growing seasons in two subalpine vegetation types with long-term differences in mammalian grazing intensity. Short-grass vegetation has a history of intensive grazing, while tall-grass vegetation has been grazed less intensively. We tested whether mammals altered the abundance and body size of leafhoppers specialized on specific plant functional types (grasses, sedges, forbs, or legumes/forbs), distinguishing between short-term...