TY - JOUR

T1 - Tree phylogenetic diversity structures multitrophic communities

AU - Staab, Michael

AU - Liu, Xiaojuan

AU - Assmann, Thorsten

AU - Bruelheide, Helge

AU - Buscot, François

AU - Durka, Walter

AU - Erfmeier, Alexandra

AU - Klein, Alexandra Maria

AU - Ma, Keping

AU - Michalski, Stefan

AU - Wubet, Tesfaye

AU - Schmid, Bernhard

AU - Schuldt, Andreas

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Functional Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society

PY - 2021/2/1

Y1 - 2021/2/1

N2 - Plant diversity begets diversity at other trophic levels. While species richness is the most commonly used measure for plant diversity, the number of evolutionary lineages (i.e. phylogenetic diversity) could theoretically have a stronger influence on the community structure of co-occurring organisms. However, this prediction has only rarely been tested in complex real-world ecosystems. Using a comprehensive multitrophic dataset of arthropods and fungi from a species-rich subtropical forest, we tested whether tree species richness or tree phylogenetic diversity relates to the diversity and composition of organisms. We show that tree phylogenetic diversity but not tree species richness determines arthropod and fungi community composition across trophic levels and increases the diversity of predatory arthropods but decreases herbivorous arthropod diversity. The effect of tree phylogenetic diversity was not mediated by changed abundances of associated organisms, indicating that evolutionarily more diverse plant communities increase niche opportunities (resource diversity) but not necessarily niche amplitudes (resource amount). Our findings suggest that plant evolutionary relatedness structures multitrophic communities in the studied species-rich forests and possibly other ecosystems at large. As global change non-randomly threatens phylogenetically distinct plant species, far-reaching consequences on associated communities are expected. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

AB - Plant diversity begets diversity at other trophic levels. While species richness is the most commonly used measure for plant diversity, the number of evolutionary lineages (i.e. phylogenetic diversity) could theoretically have a stronger influence on the community structure of co-occurring organisms. However, this prediction has only rarely been tested in complex real-world ecosystems. Using a comprehensive multitrophic dataset of arthropods and fungi from a species-rich subtropical forest, we tested whether tree species richness or tree phylogenetic diversity relates to the diversity and composition of organisms. We show that tree phylogenetic diversity but not tree species richness determines arthropod and fungi community composition across trophic levels and increases the diversity of predatory arthropods but decreases herbivorous arthropod diversity. The effect of tree phylogenetic diversity was not mediated by changed abundances of associated organisms, indicating that evolutionarily more diverse plant communities increase niche opportunities (resource diversity) but not necessarily niche amplitudes (resource amount). Our findings suggest that plant evolutionary relatedness structures multitrophic communities in the studied species-rich forests and possibly other ecosystems at large. As global change non-randomly threatens phylogenetically distinct plant species, far-reaching consequences on associated communities are expected. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

KW - arthropods

KW - BEF-China

KW - biodiversity–ecosystem functioning

KW - cross-taxon congruence

KW - forest

KW - fungi

KW - niche

KW - trophic interactions

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097054294&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/276b2e86-3913-3aef-8aa2-d16f4b3d307c/

U2 - 10.1111/1365-2435.13722

DO - 10.1111/1365-2435.13722

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85097054294

VL - 35

SP - 521

EP - 534

JO - Functional Ecology

JF - Functional Ecology

SN - 0269-8463

IS - 2

ER -