{"id":1276,"date":"2020-04-01T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jenaexperiment.uni-jena.de\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2020-08-05T10:47:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T10:47:38","slug":"new-publication-from-ebeling-et-al-in-ecology-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/2020\/04\/01\/new-publication-from-ebeling-et-al-in-ecology-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"New publication from Ebeling et al in Ecology: Contrasting effects of plant diversity on \u03b2\u2010 and \u03b3\u2010diversity of grassland invertebrates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Contrasting effects of plant diversity on \u03b2\u2010 and \u03b3\u2010diversity of grassland invertebrates<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Abstract:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The diversity of primary producers strongly affects the structure and diversity of species assemblages at other trophic levels. However, limited knowledge exists of how plant diversity effects at small spatial scales propagate to consumer communities at larger spatial scales. We assessed arthropod community \u03b2 and \u03b3\u2010diversity in response to experimentally manipulated plant community richness in two long\u2010term grassland biodiversity experiments (Jena, Germany and Cedar Creek, USA) replicated over two years. We calculated arthropod species turnover among all plot combinations (\u03b2\u2010diversity), and accumulated number of arthropod species occurring on (1) all pairwise plot combinations and (2) 40 randomly selected six\u2010plot combinations (\u03b3\u2010diversity). The components of arthropod diversity were tested against two measures of plant diversity, namely average plant \u03b1\u2010diversity (PSR) and the average difference in plant \u03b1\u2010diversity between plots (\u0394PSR). Whereas PSR points to the overall importance of plant \u03b1\u2010diversity for arthropod community turnover and diversity on a larger scale, \u0394PSR represents the role of habitat heterogeneity. We demonstrate that arthropod \u03b3\u2010diversity is supported by high, homogeneous plant \u03b1\u2010diversity, despite lower arthropod \u03b2\u2010diversity among high\u2010 compared to low\u2010diversity plant communities. We also show that, in six\u2010plot combinations, average plant \u03b1\u2010diversity has a positive influence on arthropod \u03b3\u2010diversity only when homogeneity in plant \u03b1\u2010diversity is also high. Varying heterogeneity in six\u2010plot combinations showed that combinations consisting solely of plots with an intermediate level of plant \u03b1\u2010diversity support a higher number of arthropod species compared to combinations that contain a mix of high\u2010 and low\u2010diversity plots. In fact, equal levels of arthropod diversity were found for six\u2010plot combinations with only intermediate or high plant \u03b1\u2010diversity, due to saturating benefits of local and larger\u2010scale plant diversity for higher trophic levels. Our results, alongside those of recent observational studies, strongly suggest that maintaining high \u03b1\u2010diversity in plant communities is important for conserving multiple components of arthropod diversity. As arthropods carry out a range of essential ecosystem functions, such as pollination and natural pest\u2010control, our findings provide crucial insight for effective planning of human\u2010dominated landscapes to maximize both ecological and economic benefits in grassland systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reference:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ebeling, A., E. W. Lind, S. T. Meyer, A. D. Barnes, E. T. Borer, N. Eisenhauer, et al. 2020. Contrasting effects of plant diversity on beta- and gamma-diversity of grassland invertebrates. Ecology<\/em> 101<\/strong>:e03057. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/ecy.3057<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abstract: The diversity of primary producers strongly affects the structure and diversity of species assemblages at other trophic levels. However, limited knowledge exists of how plant diversity effects at small…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1679,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}