Data from: Ontogenetic responses of four plant species to additive and interactive effects of land-use history, canopy structure, and herbivory

1. The strength of interactions among species is often highly variable in space and time, and a major challenge in understanding context-dependent effects of herbivores lies in disentangling habitat-mediated from herbivore-mediated effects on plant performance. 2. We conducted a landscape-scale experiment that manipulated light availability in woodlands with either a history of agricultural use or no history of agricultural use and coupled this with performance measurements of three life stages on four perennial herbaceous species exposed to varying levels of herbivory. 3. We found that the context-dependent effects of herbivory on plant performance changed as plants grew: juvenile plant survival was reduced by herbivores in low-light habitats whereas biomass of adult plants was reduced by a more diverse insect fauna in high-light environments. A history of agricultural land use also had negative effects on seedling establishment and adult performance, independent of herbivory. 4. Synthesis: This work experimentally separates the habitat-mediated effects on plant performance from the herbivore-mediated effects on plant performance and highlights how context-dependent interactions depend on plant ontogenetic stages.1. 物种间相互作用的强度在空间与时间维度上通常存在高度变异，解析植食动物的情境依赖性效应所面临的核心挑战之一，在于如何区分生境介导与植食动物介导对植物表现的影响。2. 我们开展了一项景观尺度实验，在具有农业利用历史与无农业利用历史的林地中操控光照可获得性，并同步测定了四种多年生草本植物在不同植食压力下三个生活阶段的植物表现。3. 研究发现，植食作用对植物表现的情境依赖性效应会随植物生长进程发生改变：低光照生境中，植食动物会降低幼株存活率；而高光照环境下，更多样化的昆虫类群会抑制成株生物量积累。农业土地利用历史同样会独立于植食作用，对幼苗定植与成株表现产生负面影响。4. 研究总结：本研究通过实验手段区分了生境介导与植食动物介导对植物表现的影响，并阐明了情境依赖性种间相互作用如何随植物个体发育阶段而变化。