ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the potential role of endophytes in a broad context of community- and ecosystem-level processes. The numbers and productivity of herbivores and predators may be significantly reduced in many agricultural ecosystems as well, resulting in significant economic losses in the meat- and dairy-production industries. On a global scale many grasslands and grass-dominated croplands are in a dynamic state, with the conversion of much native grassland to cropland, the conversion of forest to grassland, and the continually growing area of amenity grasslands. The great diversity of grasses is recognized in their taxonomic classification into several subfamilies and tribes. A number of greenhouse studies have examined interspecific competition among grasses where the endophyte status of one or more of the species was manipulated. The basic hypothesis that has been developed is that the productivity of grasses is enhanced by infection, while the assimilation of that productivity in higher trophic levels is reduced.
