Mechanisms, ecological consequences and agricultural implications of tri-trophic interactions

Recent research bridging mechanistic and ecological approaches demonstrates that plant attributes can affect herbivores, natural enemies of herbivores , and their interaction, Such effects may be genetically variable among pla nts and/or induced in individual plants by herbivore attack, and are mediat ed by primary plant attributes (i,e, nutritional quality and physical struc ture) and defense-related products (i.e, secondary chemicals and plant vola tiles), and may be modified by human activity (e.g by the introduction of B acillus thuringiensis), The study of tri-trophic interactions is important in order to understand natural species interactions and to manipulate these interactions in pest control.