Plant diversity impacts decomposition and herbivory via changes in aboveground arthropods.

ABSTRACT: Loss of plant diversity influences essential ecosystem processes as aboveground productivity, and can have cascading effects on the arthropod communities in adjacent trophic levels. However, few studies have examined how those changes in arthropod communities can have additional impacts on ecosystem processes caused by them (e.g. pollination, bioturbation, predation, decomposition, herbivory). Therefore, including arthropod effects in predictions of the impact of plant diversity loss on such ecosystem processes is an important but little studied piece of information. In a grassland biodiversity experiment, we addressed this gap by assessing aboveground decomposer and herbivore communities and linking their abundance and diversity to rates of decomposition and herbivory. Path analyses showe

SUBMITTER: Ebeling A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4165753 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature