While the impact of aboveground herbivores on plant biomass and fitness has received considerableattention, there has been far less research on the corresponding belowground impacts. The belowgroundeffects of aboveground feeding may be particularly noticeable for invasive and/or outbreaking herbivorespecies that reach high densities and can cause major damage and sometimes death.
The hemlock woollyadelgid, Adelges tsugae, is an invasive pest on the eastern seaboard of the United States that feeds on anative shade-tolerant conifer, the eastern hemlock Tsuga canadensis. Trees rapidly decline and diefollowing infestation, and the invasion of this insect has devastated hemlock populations from Georgiain the south to Maine in the north…
