Bottom-up effects of host-plant species diversity and top-down effects of ants interactively increase plant performance.

نویسندگان

  • Xoaquín Moreira
  • Kailen A Mooney
  • Rafael Zas
  • Luis Sampedro
چکیده

While plant diversity is well known to increase primary productivity, whether these bottom-up effects are enhanced by reciprocal top-down effects from the third trophic level is unknown. We studied whether pine tree species diversity, aphid-tending ants and their interaction determined plant performance and arthropod community structure. Plant diversity had a positive effect on aphids, but only in the presence of mutualistic ants, leading to a threefold greater number of both groups in the tri-specific cultures than in monocultures. Plant diversity increased ant abundance not only by increasing aphid number, but also by increasing ant recruitment per aphid. The positive effect of diversity on ants in turn cascaded down to increase plant performance; diversity increased plant growth (but not biomass), and this effect was stronger in the presence of ants. Consequently, bottom-up effects of diversity within the same genus and guild of plants, and top-down effects from the third trophic level (predatory ants), interactively increased plant performance.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Bottom - up effects of host - plant species diversity and top - down effects of ants interactively 1 increase plant performance 2 3 Running head : Bottom - up vs . top - down effects 4 5 6

1 increase plant performance 2 3 Running head: Bottom-up vs. top-down effects 4 5 6 Xoaquín Moreira, Kailen A. Mooney, Rafael Zas and Luis Sampedro 7 8 9 10 11 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 92697 Irvine, 12 California , USA. 13 14 Misión Biológica de Galicia (MBG-CSIC), Apdo. 28, 36080 Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. 15 16 Centro de Investigación Forestal...

متن کامل

Reciprocal effects of host plant and natural enemy diversity on herbivore suppression: an empirical study of a model tritrophic system

Many theoretical and empirical studies have shown that species diversity in a trophic level can impact the capture of limited resources in ways that cascade up or down a food web. Only recently, however, have ecologists begun to consider how diversity at multiple trophic levels might act in concert to have opposing or reinforcing effects on resource use. Here, we report the results of an empiri...

متن کامل

Determinants of Lichen Diversity in a Rain Forest Understory

Change in lichen diversity is often used as a bioindicator to estimate effects of atmospheric pollution, but natural variation in lichen cover and species richness can be very high. We examined the top-down effects of spore-consuming ants and the bottom-up effects of nutrient and light availability on lichen diversity associated with the leaf surface of the rain forest understory plant, Piper c...

متن کامل

Effects of Harvester Ants’ Nest Activity (Messor spp.) on Structure and Function of Plant Community in a Steppe Rangeland (Case Study: Roodshoor, Saveh, Iran)

Harvester ants are known as one of the most renowned bio-disturbances in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems that affecte vegetation by collecting seeds and harvesting plants. It seems that physiognomy of plant association in steppe shrub land of Roodshoor, Saveh, Iran has been highly changed by harvester ants’ activities that caused to conduct this research. The study was carried out on active a...

متن کامل

Top-down and bottom-up diversity cascades in detrital vs. living food webs

Lee A. Dyer* and Deborah Letourneau Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA *Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Apex predators and plant resources are both critical for maintaining diversity in biotic communities, but the indirect ( cascad...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Proceedings. Biological sciences

دوره 279 1746  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2012