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

非生物驱动因素和性状多样性如何塑造食草和其他生物过程，从而对山区生态系统的生态系统功能产生影响

• 批准号: 395710745
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Roland Brandl
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Naturschutz
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Units
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/395710745?language=en
• 关键词: How; abiotic; drivers; trait; diversity

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.

节肢动物影响植物群落，调节重要的生态系统功能，如养分循环，生物量生产和水通量。在子项目B4中，我们通过调查树冠中的叶面积损失（食草动物）来研究植物和节肢动物组合之间的关系，从而形成生物量生产。第一阶段，我们进行了沿着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性状变化。我们首先进行了响应-效应-框架分析，指出非生物驱动因子、植物性状和生物过程之间的复杂相互作用，以实现目标生态系统功能生物量生产。在第二阶段，我们将保持将性状与草食动物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，我们将扩展我们的方法，从第一阶段的系统发育方面，以了解大量的节肢动物物种。为此，我们将1）沿着从热带山地雨林到干旱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条形码编码，3）使用基于性状的方法整合非生物协变量，性状和过程数据，以了解性状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、特征和生物多样性如何在气候和土地利用梯度上调节食草动物，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。