Early positive effects of tree species richness on herbivory in a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment influence tree growth
Despite the importance of herbivory for the structure and functioning of species-rich forests, little is known about how herbivory is affected by tree species richness, and more specifically by random versus nonrandom species loss. We assessed herbivore damage in the early stage of a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment in subtropical China that features random and nonrandom extinction scenarios of tree mixtures numbering between one and 24 species. We hypothesize that (i) total herbivore damage increases along the gradient of tree species richness of our experimental sites. Moreover, we expect that (ii) these effects differ between the random and nonrandom extinction scenarios due to differences in the distribution of plant traits that may be particularly relevant to herbivores. Effects of tree species richness on herbivory at such an early stage of our experiment would have important implications for our understanding of how herbivores contribute to the processes that drive the assembly and functioning of establishing tree communities in species-rich forests.
2014-08-20 05:58:51 UTC
final
SP08e Diversity and functional effects of herbivores, predators and saproxylics in a phytodiverse subtropical forest ecosystem
Andreas Schuldt
andreas.schuldt@forst.uni-goettingen.de
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
Thorsten Assmann
assmann@uni.leuphana.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Keping Ma, Prof.
kpma@ibcas.ac.cn
Ying Li, Dr.
yingli8441@hotmail.com
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Main Experiment: Herbivore damage in site A in summer 2009
main
false
Matteo Brezzi
matteo.brezzi@ieu.uzh.ch
Bernhard Schmid, Prof.
bernhard.schmid@ieu.uzh.ch
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/411/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/411/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Tree inventory Main experiment Site A 2009
main
false
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Ying Li, Dr.
yingli8441@hotmail.com
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/402/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/402/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Tree inventory Main experiment Site A 2010
main
false
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Ying Li, Dr.
yingli8441@hotmail.com
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/398/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/398/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Tree inventory Main experiment Site B 2010
main
false
Goddert von Oheimb
Goddert_v_Oheimb@tu-dresden.de
Werner Härdtle, Prof.
werner.haerdtle@leuphana.de
Ying Li, Dr.
yingli8441@hotmail.com
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/403/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/403/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Site A plots: diversity treatments, coordinates, topography
side
false
Karsten Schmidt
Karsten.Schmidt@uni-tuebingen.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Gunnar Seidler
gunnar.seidler@botanik.uni-halle.de
Karin Nadrowski
nadrowski@uni-leipzig.de
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/71/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/71/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Site B plots: diversity treatments, coordinates, topography
side
false
Karsten Schmidt
Karsten.Schmidt@uni-tuebingen.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Karin Nadrowski
nadrowski@uni-leipzig.de
Gunnar Seidler
gunnar.seidler@botanik.uni-halle.de
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/46/download
https://data.bef-china.de/bef-china/datasets/46/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Journal of Ecology 103(3) · March 2015; doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12396
2015-03-20
accepted