Signaling defenses with color: a meta‐analysis of leaf color variation, palatability, and herbivore damage

• Published in: The New phytologist Vol. 247; no. 2; pp. 884 - 896
• Main Authors: Cornelissen, Tatiana, Silveira, Fernando A. O., Gomes, Susan Vieira, Lopez‐Goldar, Xosé, Martin‐Eberhardt, Sylvie, Wetzel, William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.07.2025; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Animals; Color; Colour; delayed greening; Fitness; Herbivores; Herbivory; Herbivory - physiology; Insecta - physiology; Insects; leaf color; leaf color polymorphism; Leaves; Meta-analysis; Nutritive value; Palatability; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Pigmentation; Plant Leaves - anatomy & histology; Plant Leaves - physiology; Predators; red leaves; Signal Transduction; Tropical plants; Variation; delayed greening; herbivory; red leaves; leaf color; leaf color polymorphism

Summary We investigated the impact of leaf color variation on herbivory, testing current hypotheses indicating that leaf color could influence herbivory through bottom‐up control (by signaling leaf quality and defenses) or top‐down control (by attracting predators). A comprehensive phylogenetic meta...