Leaf damage by insect herbivores can severely affect the growth and fitness of plants and is considered to play an important role in the maintenance of high tree diversity in (sub)tropical forests. The trees of the main experimental plantations of BEF China are strongly affected by herbivory and understanding patterns in plant growth, trait expression and other ecosystem processes thus requires incorporation of potential herbivory effects and knowledge of how herbivory may change across the tree diversity gradient. This dataset quantifies leaf damage by insect herbivores for the trees of the main experimental study plots.

The herbivory assessments were conducted at the end of the main growing season in September to quantify standing levels of leaf damage. In monocultures and two species-mixtures, all trees in the enlarged core area of 6 x 6 individuals (= 36 trees) were measured. In species-mixtures with 4 species, the core area to be measured comprised 9 x 9 individuals (= 81 trees) and in 8, 16 and 24 species-mixtures, the core area was 12 x 12 individuals (= 144 trees). On each large 4-mu plot, measurements were conducted in the core area of only one of the four 1-mu subplots (i.e. in the VIP subplots without additional shrubs planted). The degree of foliar damage by insects, defined as the combined removal of photosynthetic tissue by leaf-chewing, mining and galling (and, if visible, sucking) insects, was estimated using percentage classes of herbivore damage. On each tree, seven leaves on three randomly selected branches from different parts of the canopy (= 21 leaves per tree) were visually inspected. Herbivory was quantified as the overall leaf damage caused by chewing, mining, galling and (if visible) sucking insects per leaf. We used predefined percentage classes (estimated as 0%, <5%, <25%, <50%, <75%, >75%). Values provided here are the means of each category (i.e. 0%, 2.5%, 15%, 37.5%, 62.5%, 87.5%). As additional data, the total number of leaves was estimated and the main damage type was recorded.

Main Experiment, Site A

Fall 2014