TY - JOUR

T1 - Tree phylogenetic diversity promotes host–parasitoid interactions

AU - Staab, Michael

AU - Bruelheide, Helge

AU - Durka, Walter

AU - Michalski, Stefan

AU - Purschke, Oliver

AU - Zhu, Chao Dong

AU - Klein, Alexandra Maria

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2016, Royal Society of London. All rights reserved.

PY - 2016/7/13

Y1 - 2016/7/13

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Ecological networks

KW - Environmental gradients

KW - Gutianshan national nature reserve

KW - Parasitism

KW - Species interactions

KW - Trap-nesting hymenoptera

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84978919945&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2016.0275

DO - 10.1098/rspb.2016.0275

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 27383815

AN - SCOPUS:84978919945

VL - 283

JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

SN - 0962-8452

IS - 1834

M1 - 20160275

ER -