The relative importance of plant-soil feedbacks for plant-species performance increases with decreasing intensity of herbivory.
- Heinze J Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Biodiversity Research/Systematic Botany, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 1, 14469, Potsdam, Germany. jheinze@uni-potsdam.de.
- Simons NK Chair for Terrestrial Ecology, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany.
- Seibold S Chair for Terrestrial Ecology, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany.
- Wacker A Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald, Loitzer Straße 26, 17489, Greifswald, Germany.
- Weithoff G Department Ecology and Ecosystem Modelling, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
- Gossner MM Forest Entomology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
- Prati D Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland.
- Bezemer TM Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Droevendaalsesteeg 10, PO Box 50, 6700 AB, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
- Joshi J Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Biodiversity Research/Systematic Botany, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 1, 14469, Potsdam, Germany.
- 2019-06-25
Published in:
- Oecologia. - 2019
Field conditions
Herbivorous insects
Nutritional quality
Plant-soil feedback
Selective herbivory
Animals
Ecosystem
Herbivory
Invertebrates
Plants
Soil
English
Under natural conditions, aboveground herbivory and plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) are omnipresent interactions strongly affecting individual plant performance. While recent research revealed that aboveground insect herbivory generally impacts the outcome of PSFs, no study tested to what extent the intensity of herbivory affects the outcome. This, however, is essential to estimate the contribution of PSFs to plant performance under natural conditions in the field. Here, we tested PSF effects both with and without exposure to aboveground herbivory for four common grass species in nine grasslands that formed a gradient of aboveground invertebrate herbivory. Without aboveground herbivores, PSFs for each of the four grass species were similar in each of the nine grasslands-both in direction and in magnitude. In the presence of herbivores, however, the PSFs differed from those measured under herbivory exclusion, and depended on the intensity of herbivory. At low levels of herbivory, PSFs were similar in the presence and absence of herbivores, but differed at high herbivory levels. While PSFs without herbivores remained similar along the gradient of herbivory intensity, increasing herbivory intensity mostly resulted in neutral PSFs in the presence of herbivores. This suggests that the relative importance of PSFs for plant-species performance in grassland communities decreases with increasing intensity of herbivory. Hence, PSFs might be more important for plant performance in ecosystems with low herbivore pressure than in ecosystems with large impacts of insect herbivores.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1007/s00442-019-04442-9
- PMID 31231782
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/278882
Statistics
Document views: 31
File downloads:
- Full-text: 0