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Rather than phylogeny per se, perhaps variability is modulated by host plant specialisation - whether that be degree of local/regional endemism or niche breadth... 

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Rather than phylogeny per se, perhaps variability is modulated by host plant specialisation - whether that be degree of local/regional endemism or niche breadth... 

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How is likely covariation between latitude and biome considered in the models?

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How is likely covariation between latitude and biome considered in the models?

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Very nice trend for GINI... appears to be sampling bias to latitudes around +30-50... accounted for in the model? 

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Very nice trend for GINI... appears to be sampling bias to latitudes around +30-50... accounted for in the model? 

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Would be interesting to test interaction of latitude with altitude, especially as altitude will account for more local/regional climate variability. Likewise, productivity will be driven by regional climate (latitude) but also geological/soil context (do we have information for this?)

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Would be interesting to test interaction of latitude with altitude, especially as altitude will account for more local/regional climate variability. Likewise, productivity will be driven by regional climate (latitude) but also geological/soil context (do we have information for this?)

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Is there the same pattern of higher variability among plants at higher latitudes for annuals? Wondering if the same plants get hit year after year -- i.e. higher variability among plants at higher latitudes is due to some plants that get hit repeatedly -- or if between growing seasons the plants who got hit last year do not get hit the next year. (I guess this would cause the pattern to appear more strongly in perennials then in annuals, or this is what I would predict.)

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May be hard to have same species across a wide range of latitudes but maybe congeners could be used to compare?

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May be hard to have same species across a wide range of latitudes but maybe congeners could be used to compare?

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What drivers GINI and herbivory responses to latitude? Might plant functional group covary with latitude, thus explaining the symmetry vs. asymmetry question? 

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What drivers GINI and herbivory responses to latitude? Might plant functional group covary with latitude, thus explaining the symmetry vs. asymmetry question? 

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Also, specialisation being indexed by spatial distribution ... might predict that GINI increases as host plant distribution decreases?

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Also, specialisation being indexed by spatial distribution ... might predict that GINI increases as host plant distribution decreases?

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Is the survey sp native or exotic? Especially useful for the focal species. Could explain patterns of herbivory in the presence and absence of native suite of herbivores.

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Does latitudinal symmetry break down (or is maintained) for cosmopolitan species... or species like taraxacum now growing in latitudes where it is non-native?

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Does latitudinal symmetry break down (or is maintained) for cosmopolitan species... or species like taraxacum now growing in latitudes where it is non-native?

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The diversity of herbivores explains latitudinal symmetry?

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The diversity of herbivores explains latitudinal symmetry?

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Could the symmetric shape curve for mean herbivory/variability among plants and leaves be related to the herbivore diversity? Higher diversity and abundance of herbivores near Equator means higher mean herbivory overall, but also lower variability among plants (more herbivore explore more plants/leaves)?

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Given how strongly seasonal these sampling sites are, is the magnitude of increase in GINI really strong/meaningful (0.7-0.8)?

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Given how strongly seasonal these sampling sites are, is the magnitude of increase in GINI really strong/meaningful (0.7-0.8)?

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How does seasonal variability vary depending on whether plants are annual or perennial?

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Of course herbivory is the joint outcome of plant and animal features, but looking at the Mean Herbivory vs Variation among Plants pattterns, I was curious about whether one metric could be more related to herbivores and the other one could be more related to plants. If forced to make a guess, I tend to think that the mean herbivory levels relate more to animals (population size = herbivory pressure) and Variation relates more to plant traits (local level). I would like to explore this, taking advantage of the fact that we got nice symmetrical patterns but we know that abiotic variables differ between the N and S hemispheres: more climatic variability and colder temperatures with latitude in the North (because contrasting size of land masses and the buffering effect of the sea). Will tell you whether something interesting pops up. (Ernesto Gianoli)

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Need to summarize hypotheses related to latitudinal patterns in plant-herbivore systems

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Need to summarize hypotheses related to latitudinal patterns in plant-herbivore systems

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so many hypotheses...

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Don't forget leaf longevity... perhaps using SLA as a surrogate for this...

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Don't forget leaf longevity... perhaps using SLA as a surrogate for this...

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It might be interesting to see if the variability differ in leaf phenology. For example, there may be herbivores that prefer young and soft leaves in the Spring, which may contribute to large variability.

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Trop Moist Broadleaf Forests as outlier in variability among plants v Mean herbivory

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Trop Moist Broadleaf Forests as outlier in variability among plants v Mean herbivory

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This really jumps out at me. Relatively high variability for its mean herbivory...why?
And naively the habitat where I might expect the longest leaf longevities (this could definitely not be true...)

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Could be a nice study using Taraxacum and/or Plantago to examine within and between-plant variability in leaf defence traits during our next sampling bout

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Could be a nice study using Taraxacum and/or Plantago to examine within and between-plant variability in leaf defence traits during our next sampling bout

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Large plants have generation times of 10-100s of years, so insects with generation times of weeks could adapt to individual plants and cause decrease in variability.

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Test if focal plant cover changes with latitude

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Test if focal plant cover changes with latitude

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I wonder...is there a way to estimate whether the patterns of variability among plants are random or not? (more generally, do they fit a null model?). If there is a way, I think we could gain some insights into what is happening there, because the explanations (potential underlying processes) would be different (Ernesto Gianoli)

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Check for relationship between latitude and focal plant cover. The last slide has relationships (focal plant cover-mean/variability) that are the opposite of those expected from the latitude-mean/variability relationships.

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Was there a sampling bias in terms of whether people chose the low density versus standard method across the latitude gradient, and whether this may relate to the focal cover analysis

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Was there a sampling bias in terms of whether people chose the low density versus standard method across the latitude gradient, and whether this may relate to the focal cover analysis

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include some predictors that are correlates of latitude

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than latitude

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also accounts for soil fertility

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Number of cloudy days is potentially worth considering as a predictor

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other factors: soil fertility, elevation, precip, temp, seasonality, etc. bioclimatic variables, bioclim

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this is one of the best demonstrations

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because you have this fabulous data set (thanks for the opportunity to be involved!) could also *one day* assess how these factors vary depending on the known drivers of insect decline - e.g. urbanisation (using light pollution metrics) and land clearing/use change
(Charlotte Mills)

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I'm sure there are good reasons for using the Gini Coefficient over more common metrics of variation that could account for total or mean herbivory, such as the coefficient of variation. Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask about it last night! Was there a reason why CV wasn't used? No need to answer me directly, but I imagine a reviewer might want to know?

Thanks again for the great presentation last night. Super exciting results! (Andrew Merwin)

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(still thinking about the sweet results) if I'm remembering correctly, a normal distribution was used for the models? But if the Gini Index scales from 0 to 1, reviewers might wonder if a beta distribution might be more appropriate? I'm sure this gets really complicated with the phylogenetic models and what not.

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Correlation between leaf and plant scales

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Correlation between leaf and plant scales

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This was really cool to see -- at least at the biome level. It'd be neat to see the "raw" correlation between the leaf and plant gini indices.