Richness-productivity relationships between trophic levels in a detritus-based system: significance of abundance and trophic linkage.

ABSTRACT: Most theoretical and empirical studies of productivity-species richness relationships fail to consider linkages among trophic levels. We quantified productivity-richness relationships in detritus-based, water-filled tree-hole communities for two trophic levels: invertebrate consumers and the protozoans on which they feed. By analogy to theory for biomass partitioning among trophic levels, we predicted that consumer control would result in richness of protozoans in the lower trophic level being unaffected by increases in productivity, whereas richness of invertebrate consumers would increase with productivity. Our data were consistent with this prediction: consumer richness increased linearly, but protozoan richness was unrelated to changes in productivity. The productivity-richness relatio

SUBMITTER: Yee DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2638089 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature