Biodiversity as both a cause and consequence of resource availability: a study of reciprocal causality in a predator-prey system

The Journal of Animal Ecology
Bradley J CardinaleAnthony R Ives

Abstract

1. One of the oldest questions in ecology is how species diversity in any given trophic level is related to the availability of essential resources that limit biomass (e.g. water, nutrients, light or prey). Researchers have tried to understand this relationship by focusing either on how diversity is influenced by the availability of resources, or alternatively, how resource abundance is influenced by species diversity. These contrasting perspectives have led to a seeming paradox '... is species diversity the cause or the consequence of resources that limit community biomass?' 2. Here we present results of an experiment that show it is possible for species diversity and resource density to exhibit reciprocal causal relationships in the same ecological system. Using a guild of ladybeetle predators and their aphid prey, we manipulated the number of predator species in field enclosures to examine how predator diversity impacts prey population size. At the same time, we manipulated the abundance of aphid prey in discrete habitat patches within each enclosure to determine how smaller-scale spatial variation in resource abundance affects the number of co-occurring predator species. 3. We found that the number of ladybeetle species add...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 29, 2011·Oecologia·Sally J HolbrookAndrew J Brooks
Jun 15, 2013·The ISME Journal·Muhammad SaleemAntonis Chatzinotas
Jul 4, 2008·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Patrick HoehnIngolf Steffan-Dewenter
May 17, 2008·Ecology·Alexandra-Maria KleinIngolf Steffan-Dewenter
Jul 15, 2009·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Julia ReissGuy Woodward
Jun 24, 2009·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Shunsuke UtsumiTakayuki Ohgushi
Aug 1, 2007·Ecology Letters·A Randall HughesJohn J Stachowicz
May 15, 2007·Ecology Letters·J Emmett DuffyMichel Loreau
Oct 1, 2013·Journal of Phycology·Maria StockenreiterHerwig Stibor
Feb 5, 2016·The Journal of Parasitology·Michael R ZimmermannGerald W Esch
Oct 24, 2009·Ecology Letters·Helmut Hillebrand, Birte Matthiessen
Jun 19, 2019·PloS One·Kandanpita Galaddalage Lahiru Ishan Samaranayake, Alejandro Carlos Costamagna
Jul 25, 2018·Ecology and Evolution·Wei-Ting Lin, Steven C Pennings
Jul 19, 2017·Insects·Reinaldo QuispeAlexander Rodríguez-Berrío
Jul 13, 2021·Pest Management Science·Christine A LynchWilliam E Snyder

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