TY - JOUR

T1 - Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment

AU - Scherber, Christoph

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

AU - Weisser, Wolfgang W.

AU - Schmid, Bernhard

AU - Voigt, Winfried

AU - Fischer, Markus

AU - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef

AU - Roscher, Christiane

AU - Weigelt, Alexandra

AU - Allan, Eric

AU - Bonkowski, Michael

AU - Buchmann, Nina

AU - Buscot, Francois

AU - Clement, Lars W.

AU - Ebeling, Anne

AU - Engels, Christof

AU - Halle, Stefan

AU - Kertscher, Ilona

AU - Klein, Alexandra-Maria

AU - Koller, Robert

AU - König, Stephan

AU - Kowalski, Esther

AU - Kummer, Volker

AU - Kuu, Annely

AU - Lange, Markus

AU - Lauterbach, Dirk

AU - Middelhoff, Cornelius

AU - Migunova, Varvara D.

AU - Milcu, Alexandru

AU - Müller, Ramona

AU - Partsch, Stephan

AU - Petermann, Jana S.

AU - Renker, Carsten

AU - Rottstock, Tanja

AU - Sabais, Alexander

AU - Scheu, Stefan

AU - Temperton, Victoria Martine

AU - Schumacher, Jens

AU - Tscharntke, Teja

AU - Beler, Holger

PY - 2010/11/25

Y1 - 2010/11/25

N2 - Biodiversity is rapidly declining, and this may negatively affect ecosystem processes, including economically important ecosystem services. Previous studies have shown that biodiversity has positive effects on organisms and processes across trophic levels. However, only a few studies have so far incorporated an explicit food-web perspective. In an eight-year biodiversity experiment, we studied an unprecedented range of above- and below-ground organisms and multitrophic interactions. A multitrophic data set originating from a single long-term experiment allows mechanistic insights that would not be gained from meta-analysis of different experiments. Here we show that plant diversity effects dampen with increasing trophic level and degree of omnivory. This was true both for abundance and species richness of organisms. Furthermore, we present comprehensive above-ground/below-ground biodiversity food webs. Both above ground and below ground, herbivores responded more strongly to changes in plant diversity than did carnivores or omnivores. Density and richness of carnivorous taxa was independent of vegetation structure. Below-ground responses to plant diversity were consistently weaker than above-ground responses. Responses to increasing plant diversity were generally positive, but were negative for biological invasion, pathogen infestation and hyperparasitism. Our results suggest that plant diversity has strong bottom-up effects on multitrophic interaction networks, with particularly strong effects on lower trophic levels. Effects on higher trophic levels are indirectly mediated through bottom-up trophic cascades.

AB - Biodiversity is rapidly declining, and this may negatively affect ecosystem processes, including economically important ecosystem services. Previous studies have shown that biodiversity has positive effects on organisms and processes across trophic levels. However, only a few studies have so far incorporated an explicit food-web perspective. In an eight-year biodiversity experiment, we studied an unprecedented range of above- and below-ground organisms and multitrophic interactions. A multitrophic data set originating from a single long-term experiment allows mechanistic insights that would not be gained from meta-analysis of different experiments. Here we show that plant diversity effects dampen with increasing trophic level and degree of omnivory. This was true both for abundance and species richness of organisms. Furthermore, we present comprehensive above-ground/below-ground biodiversity food webs. Both above ground and below ground, herbivores responded more strongly to changes in plant diversity than did carnivores or omnivores. Density and richness of carnivorous taxa was independent of vegetation structure. Below-ground responses to plant diversity were consistently weaker than above-ground responses. Responses to increasing plant diversity were generally positive, but were negative for biological invasion, pathogen infestation and hyperparasitism. Our results suggest that plant diversity has strong bottom-up effects on multitrophic interaction networks, with particularly strong effects on lower trophic levels. Effects on higher trophic levels are indirectly mediated through bottom-up trophic cascades.

KW - Biology

KW - Environmental planning

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78649461307&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nature09492

DO - 10.1038/nature09492

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 468

SP - 553

EP - 556

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

SN - 0028-0836

IS - 7323

ER -