If you’re a gardener, you may not be too thrilled when insects, rabbits, fungi and other plant-eaters nibble their way through your world. But in two recent papers published in the journals Ecology and Ecology Letters, University of Minnesota researchers are showing the important role such plant-eating consumers play in an ecosystem’s ability carry out key jobs like storing carbon—and, in turn, the role plants play in supporting these organisms and the others that depend on them. The research was carried out at the U’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, a field research station just north of the Twin Cities.