Early positive effects of tree species richness on herbivory in a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment influence tree growth.
Early positive effects of tree species richness on herbivory in a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment influence tree growth.
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DOI：
10.1111/1365-2745.12396
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发表时间：
2015-05
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Zhang J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Schuldt A;Bruelheide H;Härdtle W;Assmann T;Li Y;Ma K;von Oheimb G;Zhang J
尽管草食动物的物种丰富的森林的结构和功能的重要性，很少有人知道草食动物是如何影响树种丰富度，更具体地说，随机与非随机物种损失。 我们评估草食动物损害及其对树木生长的影响，在中国亚热带地区的一个大规模的森林生物多样性实验的早期阶段，具有随机和非随机灭绝的情况下，树木混合编号为1至24种。与随机物种损失相反，非随机灭绝情景是基于树种的当地稀有性和特定的叶面积-这些特征可能强烈影响植物物种丰富度对草食动物的影响。 草食动物增加了树种丰富度在所有的情况下，不受不同的物种组成的随机和非随机灭绝的情况。而树木的生长率呈正相关，植食性的地块较小的树木，增长率显着下降，增加植食性的地块较大的树木。我们的研究结果表明，草食动物对生长速度的影响增加，从单一的物种丰富的植物群落和树木物种丰富度增加的负面影响变得更加明显，随着时间的推移，树木变大。 合成.我们的研究结果表明，关键的营养相互作用可以很快成为建立在森林种植（即已经2.5年后植树）。更强的草食动物对树木生长的影响，增加树种丰富度建议草食动物在调节生态系统功能和物种丰富的森林结构发展的一个潜在的重要作用，从一开始的次生林演替。然而，灭绝情景之间缺乏显着差异，与较高演替年龄的天然林的研究结果形成鲜明对比，在那里，稀有性对食草动物产生了负面影响。这表明，非随机物种损失的影响可以改变森林演替。
Despite the importance of herbivory for the structure and functioning of species-rich forests, little is known about how herbivory is affected by tree species richness, and more specifically by random vs. non-random species loss. We assessed herbivore damage and its effects on tree growth in the early stage of a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment in subtropical China that features random and non-random extinction scenarios of tree mixtures numbering between one and 24 species. In contrast to random species loss, the non-random extinction scenarios were based on the tree species’ local rarity and specific leaf area – traits that may strongly influence the way herbivory is affected by plant species richness. Herbivory increased with tree species richness across all scenarios and was unaffected by the different species compositions in the random and non-random extinction scenarios. Whereas tree growth rates were positively related to herbivory on plots with smaller trees, growth rates significantly declined with increasing herbivory on plots with larger trees. Our results suggest that the effects of herbivory on growth rates increase from monocultures to the most species-rich plant communities and that negative effects with increasing tree species richness become more pronounced with time as trees grow larger. Synthesis. Our results indicate that key trophic interactions can be quick to become established in forest plantations (i.e. already 2.5 years after tree planting). Stronger herbivory effects on tree growth with increasing tree species richness suggest a potentially important role of herbivory in regulating ecosystem functions and the structural development of species-rich forests from the very start of secondary forest succession. The lack of significant differences between the extinction scenarios, however, contrasts with findings from natural forests of higher successional age, where rarity had negative effects on herbivory. This indicates that the effects of non-random species loss could change with forest succession.