Invasive plants greatly threaten the integrity of ecosystems, yet their future response to ongoing climate change is uncertain. Invasive species’ broad environmental tolerances suggest warming may favor their success, especially if warming increases herbivore pressure and herbivores prefer native over invasive plant species. We constructed passive open top chambers to simulate an increase in temperature (+1-3ºC) in herbaceous plant communities in Michigan, USA. Warmed and ambient plots were manipulated to exclude or allow herbivores and the percent of leaf eaten was recorded. Utilizing the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-Test, initial results indicate that insect herbivores significantly preferred native to exotic plant species, regardless of warming (p<0.01), but that warming did not affect levels of herbivory on either native or invasive plants (p=0.73). Uncovering long-term trends in plant-herbivore interactions under novel abiotic pressures will allow us to better plan and manage the future of invasive species control throughout a changing climate.
