Plant Diversity Impacts Decomposition and Herbivory via Changes in Aboveground Arthropods
| Autor: | Helmut Hillebrand, Sebastian T. Meyer, Christoph Scherber, Anja Vogel, Maike Abbas, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Alexandra Weigelt, Markus Lange, Nico Eisenhauer, Anne Ebeling |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Biodiversity lcsh:Medicine Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Decomposer Ecosystems Abundance (ecology) Germany Animals Ecosystem Ecosystem diversity Herbivory Terrestrial Ecology lcsh:Science Arthropods Trophic level Herbivore Biomass (ecology) Multidisciplinary Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology lcsh:R Ecology and Environmental Sciences food and beverages Biology and Life Sciences 15. Life on land Arthropoda Decomposition Plant communities Plant-herbivore Species diversity interactions Plants lcsh:Q human activities Research Article |
| Zdroj: | PLoS ONE PLoS One PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 9, p e106529 (2014) |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Popis: | Loss of plant diversity influences essential ecosystem processes as aboveground productivity, and can have cascading effects on the arthropod communities in adjacent trophic levels. However, few studies have examined how those changes in arthropod communities can have additional impacts on ecosystem processes caused by them (e.g. pollination, bioturbation, predation, decomposition, herbivory). Therefore, including arthropod effects in predictions of the impact of plant diversity loss on such ecosystem processes is an important but little studied piece of information. In a grassland biodiversity experiment, we addressed this gap by assessing aboveground decomposer and herbivore communities and linking their abundance and diversity to rates of decomposition and herbivory. Path analyses showed that increasing plant diversity led to higher abundance and diversity of decomposing arthropods through higher plant biomass. Higher species richness of decomposers, in turn, enhanced decomposition. Similarly, species-rich plant communities hosted a higher abundance and diversity of herbivores through elevated plant biomass and C:N ratio, leading to higher herbivory rates. Integrating trophic interactions into the study of biodiversity effects is required to understand the multiple pathways by which biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning. peerReviewed |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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