Biotic Versus Abiotic Control of Primary Production Identified in a Common Garden Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Understanding drivers of ecosystem primary production is a foundational question in ecology that grows in importance with anthropogenic stresses (e.g., climate change). Traditionally, ecosystem production is considered to be abiotically controlled at large spatial scales (e.g., precipitation, temperature, etc.), which underlies forecasting climate change impacts. Using a "common garden" experiment over 10 years at two sites with the same plant and grasshopper species, we show that primary production is strongly influenced by biotic factors (herbivory and plant adaptations to it) at finer spatial scales by creating positive feedbacks, which reverse relative productivity of ecosystems expected from abiotic conditions alone. Our results without herbivory indicate that one site has 26% less an

SUBMITTER: Belovsky GE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6700119 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature