Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- Introduction -- Large herbivores across biomes -- INTRODUCTION -- DEFINITIONS OF BIOGEOGRAPHICAL AND BEHAVIOURAL CATEGORIES -- TAXONOMIC DIVERSITY -- PALAEONTOLOGY -- BODY SIZE, DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION -- GROUP SIZES AND FEEDING TYPES -- THE DIVERSITY OF MATING SYSTEMS ACROSS CONTINENTS AND BIOMES -- THE OCCURRENCE OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM -- VARIATIONS IN DEMOGRAPHIC STRATEGIES -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Living in a seasonal environment -- INTRODUCTION -- EFFECTS OF SEASONALITY ON LARGE HERBIVORE LIFE HISTORY TACTICS -- ENERGY USE IN ARCTIC/ALPINE LARGE HERBIVORES - CAPITAL VS. INCOME BREEDER STRATEGIES -- EFFECTS OF CLIMATIC VARIABILITY ON POPULATION DYNAMICS -- Population dynamics of Rangifer and muskoxen: review of data -- EFFECTS OF SEASONALITY ON IMPACT OF GRAZING -- EFFECTS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ON LARGE HERBIVORE-PLANT INTERACTIONS -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Linking functional responses and foraging behaviour to population dynamics -- INTRODUCTION -- RECENT MODELS OF FUNCTIONAL RESPONSE -- IMPLICATIONS OF NEW MODELS OF FUNCTIONAL RESPONSES FOR FORAGING AND DIET OPTIMIZATION -- DESCRIBING THE NUMERICAL RESPONSE -- DIET SELECTION, RESOURCE HETEROGENEITY AND LARGE HERBIVORE POPULATION DYNAMICS -- STABILIZING AND DESTABILIZING INFLUENCES ON LARGE HERBIVORE POPULATION DYNAMICS -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Impacts of large herbivores on plant community structure and dynamics -- INTRODUCTION -- HOW DO LARGE HERBIVORES DIRECTLY AFFECT INDIVIDUAL PLANTS? -- Seedling establishment -- Plant growth -- Type of tissue damage -- Severity and timing of tissue damage -- Defoliation interval -- Flowering and seed production -- Below-ground processes.

HOW DO PLANTS AVOID OR RESPOND TO LARGE HERBIVORE IMPACTS? -- Physical avoidance -- Chemical avoidance -- Avoidance of herbivory by constitutive chemical defence -- Responding to herbivory by induced chemical defence -- Tolerance -- Compensation -- IMPLICATIONS FOR PLANT COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND DIVERSITY -- Inter- and intraspecific competitive interactions -- Diversity -- Colonization and extinction -- Plant species coexistence and diversity -- Factors affecting herbivore species selection -- Abiotic factors and diversity -- Grazing refuges -- Genetic diversity -- Structural diversity -- Spatial heterogeneity -- Heterogeneity in resource distribution and herbivore distribution -- Scale dependence -- Grazing vs. non-grazing impacts on heterogeneity -- Do herbivores always increase heterogeneity? -- Temporal dynamics -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Long-term effects of herbivory on plant diversity and functional types in arid ecosystems -- INTRODUCTION -- LONG-TERM STUDIES OF EFFECTS OF LARGE MAMMALS ON ARID VEGETATION -- OSCILLATIONS OF VEGETATION AND HERBIVORE POPULATIONS -- EFFECTS OF HERBIVORY ON RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PLANT FUNCTIONAL TYPES -- (1) Bush encroachment -- (2) Size matters in rangelands with winter rainfall -- (3) Is Australia a special case? - a meta-analysis -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- The influence of large herbivores on tree recruitment and forest dynamics -- INTRODUCTION -- LARGE HERBIVORE DIETS -- PLANT DEFENCES -- EFFECTS OF BROWSERS ON TREE GROWTH AND SURVIVAL -- Browsing on leaves and shoots -- Bark stripping -- EFFECTS OF BROWSERS ON TREE REGENERATION -- Consumption of seeds -- Seedling abundance -- INDIRECT EFFECTS OF LARGE HERBIVORES -- CHANGES IN TREE SPECIES COMPOSITION -- TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN HERBIVORE DENSITIES -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES.

Large herbivores: missing partners of western European light-demanding tree and shrub species? -- INTRODUCTION -- THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LIGHT - DEMANDING TREE AND SHRUB SPECIES -- OAK AND HAZEL IN FOREST RESERVES -- COMPETITION FOR LIGHT IN A CLOSED-CANOPY FOREST -- REGENERATION OF OAK AND HAZEL IN WOOD-PASTURES -- THE JAY AND THE OAK -- THE FORMATION OF A PARK-LIKE LANDSCAPE -- PROCESSES IN THE WOOD-PASTURE AS MODERN ANALOGUES OF FORMER RELATIONS? -- OTHER LINES OF EVIDENCE -- PRESERVING BIODIVERSITY -- SUMMING UP THE VIEWPOINTS -- THE THEORY IN A BROADER PERSPECTIVE -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Frugivory in large mammalian herbivores -- INTRODUCTION -- FRUGIVORES AND THE EVOLUTION OF HERBIVORY IN MAMMALS -- FRUGIVORY AND LARGE HERBIVORES OF THE TROPICS -- SEED DISPERSAL AND SEED PREDATION -- CASE STUDIES ON FRUGIVORY AND SEED DISPERSAL FROM EXTREME HABITATS -- (1) Large mammalian herbivores as Acacia seed dispersers in the Negev desert -- (2) Frugivory in Amazonian ungulates: a case study from the Peruvian Amazon -- IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Large herbivores as sources of disturbance in ecosystems -- INTRODUCTION -- WHAT IS DISTURBANCE? -- PHYSICAL DISTURBANCE: TRAMPLING -- Magnitude of trampling effects -- Effects on hydrology -- Effects on plant community composition -- Effects on nutrient dynamics -- Effects on herbivore patch use -- PHYSICAL DISTURBANCE: WALLOWS -- ADDITIONS OF DUNG, URINE AND CARCASSES -- Magnitude of effects -- Effects on plant communities and herbivore foraging -- INTERACTIONS OF LARGE HERBIVORES WITH OTHER SOURCES OF DISTURBANCE -- Effect of grazing on fire regimes in grasslands and savannas -- Effects of large herbivores on fire regimes in forests and shrublands -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES.

The roles of large herbivores in ecosystem nutrient cycles -- INTRODUCTION -- THE SERENGETI: INCREASED NUTRIENT CYCLING IN A GRAZING ECOSYSTEM -- THE MOOSE IN THE BOREAL FOREST: DECREASED NUTRIENT CYCLING IN A BROWSING SYSTEM -- REINDEER IN TUNDRA: MIXED EFFECTS ON NUTRIENT CYCLING -- WHEN IS NUTRIENT CYCLING AND PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCED AND WHEN IS IT DECREASED? -- IMPLICATIONS FOR EVOLUTION -- IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION OF LARGE HERBIVORES -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Large herbivores in heterogeneous grassland ecosystems -- INTRODUCTION -- REGIONAL HETEROGENEITY -- The response of large herbivores to regional heterogeneity -- The effect of large herbivores on regional heterogeneity -- LANDSCAPE HETEROGENEITY -- The response of large herbivores to landscape heterogeneity -- The effect of large herbivores on landscape heterogeneity -- HETEROGENEITY WITHIN A PLANT COMMUNITY -- The response of herbivores to heterogeneity within communities -- The effect of large herbivores on variability within the community -- EFFECTS OF HERBIVORES ON HETEROGENEITY AND ASSOCIATED FEEDBACKS -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Modelling of large herbivore-vegetation interactions in a landscape context -- INTRODUCTION -- MODELLING APPROACHES -- Approaches focusing on large herbivore dynamics -- Approaches focusing on vegetation dynamics -- Integrated approaches -- CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATED LARGE HERBIVORE-VEGETATION MODELS IN A LANDSCAPE CONTEXT -- Predator-large herbivore interactions -- Interactions among large herbivore species -- Interactions among plant species -- Cultural features and land use change -- Interactions with disturbances -- Herbivore effects other than herbivory -- APPROACHES FOR MODELLING ACROSS SCALES -- Multiple scales and scale mismatches -- Example: Scaling forage intake from bite to landscape.

MODELS FOR MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Effects of large herbivores on other fauna -- INTRODUCTION -- METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES -- THE POTENTIAL MECHANISMS HOW LARGE HERBIVORES CAN AFFECT OTHER BIOTA -- Large herbivores as resources -- Large herbivores as 'predators' -- The indirect effects of large herbivores -- IMPACTS ON VERTEBRATES -- Small mammals -- Birds -- IMPACTS ON INVERTEBRATES -- Impacts on macro-invertebrates -- Grazing intensity and response of invertebrate fauna -- Impacts on soil microfauna -- CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- REFERENCES -- The future role of large carnivores in terrestrial trophic interactions: the northern temperate view -- INTRODUCTION -- WHAT RUNS THE WORLD - LITTLE THINGS OR BIG THINGS? -- DRAMATIS PERSONAE -- PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTIONS -- General problems -- Theory -- THE PREDATION MODEL: CAN LARGE CARNIVORES SUPPRESS POPULATIONS OF LARGE HERBIVORES? -- CAN LARGE CARNIVORES DRIVE LARGE HERBIVORES TO LOCAL EXTINCTION? -- THE PREDATION-FOOD MODEL (TWO-STAGE): DO PREDATOR PITS EXIST? -- The moose-wolf-balsam fir studies on Isle Royale -- CAN WE EXPECT STABILITY IN PREDATOR-PREY SYSTEMS? -- BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS -- Effects of prey migration -- Effects of prey defence -- Effects of naıve prey -- Changes in predator behaviour -- COMMUNITY EFFECTS -- When gravel pits change mammal community structure -- Large carnivore-large herbivore interactions in Yellowstone National Park -- The Paine effect in northern boreal forests? -- The elk-wolf-aspen interaction -- Grizzly bear and wolf extinctions affect avian neotropical migrants -- The Glacier National Park -- The Silent Spring - The Rachel Carson revival -- The mesopredator release effect -- HUMANS ARE THE MAIN KEYSTONE -- CONCLUSIONS -- Large carnivore effects on large herbivore numbers.

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'.