Tree phylogenetic diversity promotes host–parasitoid interactions

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

Evidence from grassland experiments suggests that a plant community's phylogenetic diversity (PD) is a strong predictor of ecosystem processes, even stronger than species richness per se. This has, however, never been extended to species-rich forests and host–parasitoid interactions. We used cavity-nesting Hymenoptera and their parasitoids collected in a subtropical forest as a model system to test whether hosts, parasitoids, and their interactions are influenced by tree PD and a comprehensive set of environmental variables, including tree species richness. Parasitism rate and parasitoid abundance were positively correlated with tree PD. All variables describing parasitoids decreased with elevation, and were, except parasitism rate, dependent on host abundance. Quantitative descriptors of host–parasitoid networks were independent of the environment. Our study indicates that host–parasitoid interactions in species-rich forests are related to the PD of the tree community, which influences parasitism rates through parasitoid abundance. We show that effects of tree community PD are much stronger than effects of tree species richness, can cascade to high trophic levels, and promote trophic interactions. As during habitat modification phylogenetic information is usually lost non-randomly, even species-rich habitats may not be able to continuously provide the ecosystem process parasitism if the evolutionarily most distinct plant lineages vanish.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer20160275
ZeitschriftProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Jahrgang283
Ausgabenummer1834
Anzahl der Seiten9
ISSN0962-8452
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 13.07.2016
Extern publiziertJa

Bibliographische Notiz

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Royal Society of London. All rights reserved.

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. A world of abundance
  2. Winning Ugly
  3. Friction Riveting of FR4 substrates for printed circuit boards
  4. What is the threshold for a clinically relvent effect?
  5. Introduction: Modeling the Pacific Ocean
  6. Leveraging LLMs in Scholarly Knowledge Graph Question Answering
  7. Towards a Model for Building Trust and Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence Aided Medical Assessment Systems
  8. A four-component classification of uncertainties in biological invasions: implications for management
  9. Leveling up? An inter-neighborhood experiment on parochialism and the efficiency of multi-level public goods provision
  10. Minimalist Training
  11. Intra-specific leaf trait responses to species richness at two different local scales
  12. Was gibt´s heute?
  13. Impacts of Multiple Environmental Change Drivers on Growth of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
  14. Using Reading Strategy Training to Foster Students´ Mathematical Modelling Competencies
  15. Legislating for Outer Space
  16. The 'need for speed'
  17. Geometrical Accuracy in Two-Stage Incremental Sheet Forming with Active Medium
  18. Acknowledging temporal diversity in sustainability transformations at the nexus of interconnected systems
  19. Sol-gel technology for greener and more sustainable antimicrobial textiles that use silica matrices with C, and Ag and ZnO as biocides
  20. Precrop functional group identity affects yield of winter barley but less so high carbon amendments in a mesocosm experiment
  21. The effectiveness of nudging
  22. Front in the mouth, front in the word
  23. Minimum return guarantees, investment caps, and investment flexibility
  24. Linking socio-technical transition studies and organisational change management