In this review, Rosenthal and Kotanen examine the major factors that affect plant tolerance to both insect and vertebrate herbivory, and summarizes some developing ideas about the adaptive significance of tolerance, its evolutionary relationship to plant defense, and its importance in community structure. It is increasingly understood that tolerance to herbivory is a plant trait that is governed by intrinsic physiological and morphological features, and influenced by extrinsic factors such as the availability of resources and the type of herbivory. Models and comparative studies suggest that tolerance may serve as an evolutionary alternative to defense against herbivores. However, this complex plant trait also may be a by-product of other unrelated selective pressures. The authors conclude that the understanding of mechanisms of tolerance is, at present, disproportionately comprised by defoliation studies on grasses with abundant resources; a greater diversity of studies are needed to get a general understanding of tolerance and its role in plant-herbivore interactions.
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