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

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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.