Fig. 1: Conceptual model using patch-scale informative odour to protect palatable plants.
From: Olfactory misinformation provides refuge to palatable plants from mammalian browsing
a, A palatable plant emitting odour providing a cue to foraging herbivores. b, A real avoided, low-quality plant neighbourhood provides associational refuge, protecting the palatable plant from herbivores by degrading actual patch quality and delaying browsing at a patch. c, A virtual neighbourhood of artificial informative odours mimicking real avoided neighbours replaces real plants yet still protects the palatable plant via associational refuge. d, Thus, population-level survival of a palatable plants is improved by b and c because many mammalian herbivores detect, identify and decide whether to visit and browse at food patches using odour.
