Everything about Grazing totally explained
Grazing generally describes a type of
predation in which an
herbivore feeds on
plants (such as
grasses), or more broadly on a multicellular
autotrophs (such as
kelp). Grazing differs from
true predation because the organism being eaten isn't
killed, and it differs from
parasitism as the two organisms don't
live together, nor is the grazer necessarily so limited in what it can eat (see
generalist and specialist species).
The word "graze" derives from the
Old English (OE)
grasian, "graze", itself related to OE
graes, "grass". For terrestrial animals grazing is normally distinguished from
browsing in that grazing is eating grass or other low vegetation, and browsing is eating woody twigs and
leaves from
trees and
shrubs . However, "grazing" is sometimes used to refer to both grazing and browsing.
Grazing may be associated with
mammals feeding on
grasslands, or more specifically
livestock on a
farm. However,
ecologists sometimes use the word in a much broader sense, including any organism that feeds on any other without living in close association with it or ending its life by the act of feeding on it, as described above. An example of a grazer that might seem counterintuitive to the everyday use of the word is a
mosquito, which isn't a parasite in that it doesn't form any lasting association with its prey, and isn't a true predator in that it doesn't kill them by this act (although they can act as a
vector for fatal diseases such as
malaria). In this sense it's the antithesis of
parasitoidism, in which an organism (typically the
larval stage of a
wasp) feeds on another by eating it from within. In that case, the prey is inevitably killed by successful predation, and has an intimate association with its predator, such that its premature death would also see the parasitoid die as well. Use of the term varies however, for example a marine biologist may describe herbivorous
sea urchins that feed on kelp as grazers even when they consistently kill the organism by cutting the plant down at the base.
Many smaller, selective herbivores follow grazers because they skim off the highest, tough growth of plants exposing tender shoots.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Grazing'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://grazing.totallyexplained.com">Grazing Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
