Despite long-standing interest in latitudinal variation in ecological patterns and processes, there is to date weak and conflicting evidence that herbivore pressure varies with latitude. We used three approaches to examine latitudinal variation in herbivore pressure in Atlantic Coast salt marshes, focusing on five abundant plant taxa: the grass Spartina alterniflora, the congeneric rushes Juncus gerardii and J. roemerianus, the forb Solidago sempervirens, and the shrubs Iva frutescens and Baccharis halimifolia. Herbivore counts indicated that chewing and gall-making herbivores were typically > or = 10 times more abundant at low-latitude sites than at high-latitude sites, but sucking herbivores did not show a clear pattern. For two herbivore taxa (snails and tettigoniid grasshoppers), correctly interpreting latitudinal patterns required an understanding of the feeding ecology of the species, because the species common at high latitudes did not feed heavily on plant leaves whereas the related species common at low latitudes did. Damage to plants from chewing herbivores was 2-10 times greater at low-latitude sites than at high-latitude sites. Damage to transplanted "phytometer" plants was 100 times greater for plants transplanted to low- than to high-latitude sites, and two to three times greater for plants originating from high- vs. low-latitude sites. Taken together, these results provide compelling evidence that pressure from chewing and gall-making herbivores is greater at low vs. high latitudes in Atlantic Coast salt marshes. Sucking herbivores do not show this pattern and deserve greater study. Selective pressure due to greater herbivore damage at low latitudes is likely to partially explain documented patterns of low plant palatability to chewing herbivores and greater plant defenses at low latitudes, but other factors may also play a role in mediating these geographic patterns.

Ecological interactions often vary geographically. Work in salt marshes on the Atlantic Coast of the United States has documented community-wide latitudinal gradients in plant palatability and plant traits that may be driven in part by greater herbivore pressure at low latitudes. To determine if similar patterns exist elsewhere, we studied six taxa of saltmarsh plants (Atriplex , Juncus , Limonium , Salicornia , Spartina and Suaeda ) at European sites at high (Germany and the Netherlands) and low (Portugal and Spain) latitudes. We conducted feeding assays using both native and non-native consumers, and documented patterns of herbivore damage in the field. As in the United States, high-latitude plants tended to be more palatable than low-latitude plants when offered to consumers in paired feeding assays in the laboratory, although assays with grasshopper consumers were less consistent than those with crab consumers, and plants in the field at low-latitude sites tended to experience greater levels of herbivore pressure than plants at high-latitude sites. Similarly, high-latitude leaf litter was more palatable than litter from low-latitude plants when offered to consumers in paired feeding assays in the laboratory. Latitudinal gradients in plant palatability and herbivore pressure may be a general phenomenon, and may contribute to latitudinal gradients in decomposition processes.

Ecological interactions often vary geographically. Work in salt marshes on the Atlantic Coast of the UnitedStates has documented community-wide latitudinal gradients in plant palatability and plant traits that may be driven in part by greater herbivore pressure at low latitudes. To determine if similar patterns exist elsewhere, we studied six taxa of saltmarsh plants (Atriplex , Juncus , Limonium , Salicornia , Spartina and Suaeda ) at European sites at high (Germany and the Netherlands) and low (Portugal and Spain) latitudes. We conducted feeding assays using both native and non-native consumers, and documented patterns of herbivore damage in the field. As in the United States, high-latitude plants tended to be more palatable than low-latitude plants when offered to consumers in paired feeding assays in the laboratory, although assays with grasshopper consumers were less consistent than those with crab consumers, and plants in the field at low-latitude sites tended to experience greater levels of herbivore pressure than plants at high-latitude sites. Similarly, high-latitude leaf litter was more palatable than litter from low-latitude plants when offered to consumers in paired feeding assays in the laboratory. Latitudinal gradients in plant palatability and herbivore pressure may be a general phenomenon, and may contribute to latitudinal gradients in decomposition processes.

A fundamental question in ecology is how biological interactions and biogeographic processes interact to determine the biodiversity of local sites. We quantified patterns of plant species diversity on transects across elevation at 59 salt marsh sites in Georgia and 49 sites in Texas. Although these regions have similar climates and floras, we anticipated that diversity might differ because of differences in tidal regime. Diversity was measured at global, regional, site, and plot scales to consider processes occurring at all levels. Species pools were similar between regions. Texas had greater diversity at the site and plot scales, suggesting that processes occurring at the site scale differed. The greater diversity of Texas sites and plots was associated with wider distributions of individual species across the marsh landscape and proportionally more middle marsh (a high diversity zone) and less low marsh (a low diversity zone) than in Georgia marshes. Preliminary data suggested that these differences were not due to differences in salinity regime or standing biomass between regions, leaving differences in tidal regime as the most plausible hypothesis accounting for differences in plant diversity. We speculate that the less-predictable tidal regime in Texas leads to temporal variation in abiotic conditions that limit the ability of any one species to competitively exclude others from particular marsh zones.