Mechanisms driving diversity-productivity relationships differ between exotic and native communities and are affected by gastropod herbivory.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity experiments have shown that productivity usually increases with plant species richness. However, most of those studies disregarded the importance of trophic interactions to the diversity-productivity relationship, and focused on the loss of native species while ignoring invasions by exotic species. Yet, as functional complementarity and the impact of plant antagonists are likely to differ between native and exotic communities, the diversity-productivity relationship may change when native communities are invaded by exotic species. We conducted a mesocosm experiment to test how diversity effects, evenness, and productivity differed between exotic and native assemblages of grassland plants, and how these communities were influenced by slug herbivory. In line with other experimen

SUBMITTER: Korell L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4819496 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature