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Salazar D, Marquis RJ. Testing the role of local plant chemical diversity on plant-herbivore interactions and plant species coexistence. Ecology 2022; 103:e3765. [PMID: 35611398 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2021] [Revised: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that herbivorous insects influence local composition and richness of Neotropical plant species, particularly in species-rich genera. Species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and chemical diversity all influence the ability of insect herbivores to find and utilize their hosts. The relative impact of these components of diversity on species coexistence and plant-herbivore interactions is not well understood. We constructed 60 local communities of up to 13 species of Piper (Piperaceae) in native, mature forest at a lowland wet forest location in Costa Rica. Species composition of each community was chosen such that species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and GCMS-based chemical diversity were varied independently among communities. We predicted that chemical diversity would most strongly affect the communities across time, with smaller effects of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity. Thirteen months after the experimental planting, we assessed survivorship of each cutting, measured total leaf area loss of the survivors, leaf area loss to generalist and specialist herbivorous insect species, and local extinction of species. Generalist and specialist herbivory decreased with increasing levels of species richness and phylogenetic diversity, respectively. Surprisingly, there was no independent effect of chemical diversity on any of the three measures of herbivore damage. Nevertheless, plots with a higher chemical and phylogenetic diversity showed decreased plant mortality and local species extinction. Overall, our results suggest that both chemical and phylogenetic similarity are important factors in the assembly and maintenance of tropical plant communities. The fact that chemical diversity influences plant mortality suggests that leaf herbivores, and possibly other plant natural enemies, could increase plant diversity via selective mortality of similar chemotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Salazar
- International Center for Tropical Botany, Institute of Environment, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University
| | - Robert J Marquis
- Department of Biology and the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
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Singh AK, Liu W, Zakari S, Wu J, Yang B, Jiang XJ, Zhu X, Zou X, Zhang W, Chen C, Singh R, Nath AJ. A global review of rubber plantations: Impacts on ecosystem functions, mitigations, future directions, and policies for sustainable cultivation. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 796:148948. [PMID: 34273842 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Revised: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The growing global need for latex is driving rubber plantation (RP) expansion since the last century, with >2 Mha of cultivation area being established in the last decade. Southeast Asia is the hotspot for rubber cultivation at other land-use costs. Although rubber cultivation has improved the economic status of farmers, it has altered the habitat's ecology and ecosystem functions (EF). However, studies on the impacts of RP on EF are limited, and a clear overview is not available. To bridge this gap, we conducted an inclusive review of the EF of RP, including soil carbon storage, aboveground biomass (AGB) and belowground biomass (BGB), litter production and decomposition, respiration, and biodiversity (plants, animals, soil fauna, and microbes). We compared the EF in RP (monoculture) with those in forests because the conversion of forests to RP is prevalent in the tropics and because most RP studies used forests as reference ecosystems. We found RP generally have lower EF than forests. The impacts of RP on some EF are more severe (e.g., AGB, BGB, and plant diversity), causing decreases of >55%, and the effects are consistently negative irrespective of plantation age. However, including agroforestry or polyculture, integrated pest management, cover cropping, mulching, and composting can improve the EF in RP to some extent. We highlighted research gaps, particularly substantial research gaps concerning the influence of plant diversity treatments (i.e., agroforestry) performed in RP on EF. Additionally, more empirical data on the significance of spatial and temporal levels are required, such as how the impact on EF could vary with climate and RP age, as we showed some examples where EF differs spatially and temporally. More importantly, further research on plantation management to offset EF losses is needed. Finally, we emphasized knowledge gaps and suggested future directions and policies for improving EF in RP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashutosh Kumar Singh
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China.
| | - Wenjie Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China.
| | - Sissou Zakari
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Laboratory of Hydraulics and Environmental Modeling (HydroModE-Lab), Faculté d'Agronomie, Université de Parakou, 03 BP 351 Parakou, Benin
| | - Junen Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Bin Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Xiao Jin Jiang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Xiai Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China.
| | - Xin Zou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Wanjun Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Chunfeng Chen
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Rishikesh Singh
- Integrative Ecology Laboratory (IEL), Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development (IESD), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India
| | - Arun Jyoti Nath
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar 788011, India
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Staab M, Liu X, Assmann T, Bruelheide H, Buscot F, Durka W, Erfmeier A, Klein A, Ma K, Michalski S, Wubet T, Schmid B, Schuldt A. Tree phylogenetic diversity structures multitrophic communities. Funct Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Staab
- Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany
- Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS) University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany
- Ecological Networks Technical University Darmstadt Darmstadt Germany
| | - Xiaojuan Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Vegetation Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Thorsten Assmann
- Institute of Ecology Leuphana University Lüneburg Lüneburg Germany
| | - Helge Bruelheide
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden Martin Luther University Halle‐Wittenberg Halle (Saale) Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
| | - François Buscot
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Department of Soil Ecology Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Halle (Saale) Germany
| | - Walter Durka
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Department of Community Ecology Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Halle (Saale) Germany
| | - Alexandra Erfmeier
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Institute for Ecosystem Research Kiel University Kiel Germany
| | | | - Keping Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Vegetation Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Stefan Michalski
- Department of Community Ecology Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Halle (Saale) Germany
| | - Tesfaye Wubet
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Department of Community Ecology Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Halle (Saale) Germany
| | - Bernhard Schmid
- Department of Geography University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland
- Institute of Ecology Peking University Beijing China
| | - Andreas Schuldt
- Forest Nature ConservationGeorg‐August‐University Göttingen Göttingen Germany
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van der Plas F. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in naturally assembled communities. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2019; 94:1220-1245. [PMID: 30724447 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2018] [Revised: 01/08/2019] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Approximately 25 years ago, ecologists became increasingly interested in the question of whether ongoing biodiversity loss matters for the functioning of ecosystems. As such, a new ecological subfield on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (BEF) was born. This subfield was initially dominated by theoretical studies and by experiments in which biodiversity was manipulated, and responses of ecosystem functions such as biomass production, decomposition rates, carbon sequestration, trophic interactions and pollination were assessed. More recently, an increasing number of studies have investigated BEF relationships in non-manipulated ecosystems, but reviews synthesizing our knowledge on the importance of real-world biodiversity are still largely missing. I performed a systematic review in order to assess how biodiversity drives ecosystem functioning in both terrestrial and aquatic, naturally assembled communities, and on how important biodiversity is compared to other factors, including other aspects of community composition and abiotic conditions. The outcomes of 258 published studies, which reported 726 BEF relationships, revealed that in many cases, biodiversity promotes average biomass production and its temporal stability, and pollination success. For decomposition rates and ecosystem multifunctionality, positive effects of biodiversity outnumbered negative effects, but neutral relationships were even more common. Similarly, negative effects of prey biodiversity on pathogen and herbivore damage outnumbered positive effects, but were less common than neutral relationships. Finally, there was no evidence that biodiversity is related to soil carbon storage. Most BEF studies focused on the effects of taxonomic diversity, however, metrics of functional diversity were generally stronger predictors of ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, in most studies, abiotic factors and functional composition (e.g. the presence of a certain functional group) were stronger drivers of ecosystem functioning than biodiversity per se. While experiments suggest that positive biodiversity effects become stronger at larger spatial scales, in naturally assembled communities this idea is too poorly studied to draw general conclusions. In summary, a high biodiversity in naturally assembled communities positively drives various ecosystem functions. At the same time, the strength and direction of these effects vary highly among studies, and factors other than biodiversity can be even more important in driving ecosystem functioning. Thus, to promote those ecosystem functions that underpin human well-being, conservation should not only promote biodiversity per se, but also the abiotic conditions favouring species with suitable trait combinations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fons van der Plas
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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