McNaughton wrote this article in response to Belsky's (1986) paper titled, "Does herbivory benefit plants?" since he felt that she developed an argument that is neither internally consistent nor supportable by the scientific evidence. He attempted to identify logical errors, papers uncited by Belsky that refute her principal points, a misrepresentation of the methods that he used in his field studies, and errors of fact and interpretation that flow from her approach. For example, Belsky did not consider the contribution to vegetation productivity of such effects of herbivory, except to observe that defoliation does not increase the water-use efficiency of laboratory plants. For field evidence, several experiments documented increased grain yield when crop plants were defoliated under arid conditions (Richards 1983), a clear demonstration of fitness increase in annuals as a result of herbivory.
Citations and enhanced abstracts for journals articles and documents focused on rangeland ecology and management. RSIS is a collaboration between Montana State University, University of Idaho, and University of Wyoming.