Phylogenetic diversity of plants alters the effect of species richness on invertebrate herbivory.

ABSTRACT: Long-standing ecological theory proposes that diverse communities of plants should experience a decrease in herbivory. Yet previous empirical examinations of this hypothesis have revealed that plant species richness increases herbivory in just as many systems as it decreases it. In this study, I ask whether more insight into the role of plant diversity in promoting or suppressing herbivory can be gained by incorporating information about the evolutionary history of species in a community. In an old field system in southern Ontario, I surveyed communities of plants and measured levels of leaf damage on 27 species in 38 plots. I calculated a measure of phylogenetic diversity (PSE) that encapsulates information about the amount of evolutionary history represented in each of the plots and look

SUBMITTER: Dinnage R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3698468 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature