How generalist herbivores exploit belowground plant diversity in temperate grasslands.

ABSTRACT: Belowground herbivores impact plant performance, thereby inducing changes in plant community composition, which potentially leads to cascading effects onto higher trophic levels and ecosystem processes and productivity. Among soil-living insects, external root-chewing generalist herbivores have the strongest impact on plants. However, the lack of knowledge on their feeding behaviour under field conditions considerably hampers achieving a comprehensive understanding of how they affect plant communities. Here, we address this gap of knowledge by investigating the feeding behaviour of Agriotes click beetle larvae, which are common generalist external root-chewers in temperate grassland soils. Utilizing diagnostic multiplex PCR to assess the larval diet, we examined the seasonal patterns in fe

SUBMITTER: Wallinger C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4285316 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature