How abiotic drivers and trait diversity shape herbivory and other biotic processes with consequences for ecosystem functions across mountain ecosystems

节肢动物草食动物影响植物群落，调节重要的生态系统功能，如营养循环、生物量生产和水通量。在子项目B4中，我们通过调查树冠的叶面积损失(食草性)来研究植物和节肢动物组合之间的关系，这些组合决定了生物量的生产。在尊重的第一阶段，我们开展了沿环境梯度的调查和实验室工作，以调查植物和草食动物以及草食动物的特征变化。我们进行了第一响应-效应-框架分析，指出目标生态系统功能生物质生产的非生物驱动因素、植物特性和生物过程之间存在复杂的相互作用。在第二阶段，我们将保持将特性与食草性和其他生物过程联系起来的总体目标，以了解两个生态系统目标功能“生物量生产”和“水通量”对环境变化的抵抗力。此外，我们将通过系统发育方面将我们的方法从第一阶段扩展到对大量节肢动物物种的深入了解。为此，我们将1)沿着从热带山区降雨到干燥森林的非生物梯度进行实地调查和实验室工作，2)对广泛的草食动物样本进行元生物编码，3)使用基于特征的方法整合非生物协变量、特征和过程数据，以了解特征和生物相互作用对两个目标生态系统功能的影响和重要性。这将使我们能够了解非生物驱动因素、特征和物种多样性如何调节气候和土地利用梯度上的食草性，并预测气候和土地利用变化对生物过程和生态系统功能的影响。

Arthropod herbivores influence plant communities and modulate important ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycles, biomass production and water fluxes. In subproject B4, we study the relationships between plants and arthropod assemblages shaping biomass production by investigating leaf area loss (herbivory) in tree crowns. In phase 1 of RESPECT, we carried out surveys along environmental gradients and lab work to investigate the changes of traits of plants and herbivores as well as herbivory. We conducted first Response-Effect-Framework analyses that point to a complex interplay between abiotic drivers, plant traits and biotic processes for the target ecosystem function biomass production.In phase 2, we will keep the overall aim of linking traits to herbivory and other biotic processes to understand the resistance of the two ecosystem target functions “biomass production” and “water fluxes” to environmental changes. Moreover, we will extend our approach from phase 1 by phylogenetic aspects to get insights into the vast number of arthropod species. For that, we will 1) carry out field surveys and lab work along the abiotic gradient from tropical mountain rain to dry forests, 2) conduct metabarcoding on the extensive herbivore samples and 3) use a trait-based approach to integrate abiotic covariates, trait and process data to understand the impact and importance of traits and biotic interactions for the two target ecosystem functions. This will allow us to understand how abiotic drivers, traits and phylodiversity modulate herbivory across climate and land-use gradients and to project the effects of climate and land-use change on biotic processes and the ecosystem functions.