Responses of community-level plant-insect interactions to climate warming in a meadow steppe.
Responses of community-level plant-insect interactions to climate warming in a meadow steppe.
复制标题
草甸草原群落级植物-昆虫相互作用对气候变暖的响应
DOI：
10.1038/srep18654
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发表时间：
2015-12-21
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Guo J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhu H;Zou X;Wang D;Wan S;Wang L;Guo J
气候变暖可能会破坏营养相互作用，从而影响生态系统的功能。大多数研究集中在温度对植物-昆虫相互作用的影响，在个体和种群水平上，特别强调物候和分布的变化。然而，来自社区一级的现有证据有限。通过为期3年的田间试验，研究了草甸草原植物和昆虫群落以及植物-昆虫相互作用对温度升高的潜在反应。升温增加了植物群落和杂类草的生物量，降低了草本植物的生物量，表明植物群落由草本植物占优势向草本-杂类草混合型转变。气候变暖导致的昆虫群落，特别是草食性昆虫的丰度降低，主要是由于食物可利用性降低和防御性草食性增强导致的Euchorthippus unicolor和Cicadellidae物种的丰度降低。较低的食草动物丰度导致较低的捕食者物种丰富度，因为减少猎物资源，并导致昆虫物种丰富度的整体下降。有趣的是，变暖增强了昆虫和植物物种丰富度之间的正相关关系，这意味着植物-昆虫相互作用的强度被变暖所改变。我们的研究结果表明，在草原气候变暖的情况下，群落水平上植物-昆虫相互作用的改变可能比以前认为的更重要和复杂。
Climate warming may disrupt trophic interactions, consequently influencing ecosystem functioning. Most studies have concentrated on the temperature-effects on plant-insect interactions at individual and population levels, with a particular emphasis on changes in phenology and distribution. Nevertheless, the available evidence from the community level is limited. A 3-year field manipulative experiment was performed to test potential responses of plant and insect communities and plant-insect interactions, to elevated temperature in a meadow steppe. Warming increased the biomass of plant community and forbs and decreased grass biomass, indicating a shift from grass-dominant to grass-forb mixed plant community. Reduced abundance of the insect community under warming, particularly the herbivorous insects, was attributed to lower abundance ofEuchorthippus unicolorand a Cicadellidae species resulting from lower food availability and higher defensive herbivory. Lower herbivore abundance caused lower predator species richness because of reduced prey resources and contributed to an overall decrease in insect species richness. Interestingly, warming enhanced the positive relationship between insect and plant species richness, implying that the strength of the plant-insect interactions was altered by warming. Our results suggest that alterations to plant-insect interactions at a community level under climate warming in grasslands may be more important and complex than previously thought.