Relaxation of induced indirect defenses of acacias following exclusion of mammalian herbivores

Many plants offer rewards to attract ants that provide indirect defense against herbivores. These rewards include nectar and swollen thorn domatia, and their production can be inducible. Theory predicts that costly rewards should be relaxed if the risk of herbivory is reduced, although this has not been previously demonstrated. Acacia drepanolobium trees in East Africa produce two ant rewards, extrafloral nectar and swollen thorns. We compared the rewards offered by trees experimentally protected from mammalian browsing for seven years with those offered by unprotected trees. Protected trees produced 25% fewer nectaries per leaf and 25% fewer swollen thorns than did trees in browsed plots. Relaxation of indirect defenses when trees are protected from herbivores is consistent with the dual hypotheses that inducible defenses are dynamic and that plants can save costs by relaxing these defenses when they are not needed. Among trees exposed to mammalian herbivores, trees that were browsed within roughly the past year provided rewards for ants similar to those provided by trees exposed to herbivores but not browsed within the past year. This result suggests that relaxation of indirect defenses only occurs following more than one year of protection from mammalian herbivory.