Contrasting effects of plant richness and composition on insect communities: a field experiment

The American Naturalist
Nick M HaddadJohannes M H Knops

Abstract

We experimentally separated the effects of two components of plant diversity-plant species richness and plant functional group richness-on insect communities. Plant species richness and plant functional group richness had contrasting effects on insect abundances, a result we attributed to three factors. First, lower insect abundances at higher plant functional group richness were explained by a sampling effect, which was caused by the increasing likelihood that one low-quality group, C4 grasses, would be present and reduce average insect abundances by 25%. Second, plant biomass, which was positively related to plant functional group richness, had a strong, positive effect on insect abundances. Third, a positive effect of plant species richness on insect abundances may have been caused by greater availability of alternate plant resources or greater vegetational structure. In addition, a greater diversity of insect species, whose individual abundances were often unaffected by changes in plant species richness, may have generated higher total community abundances. After controlling for the strong, positive influence of insect abundance on insect diversity through rarefaction, insect species richness increased as plant species rich...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 19, 2005·Oecologia·Christoph ScherberWolfgang W Weisser
Sep 28, 2010·Oecologia·Mário Almeida-NetoThomas M Lewinsohn
Sep 26, 2012·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Claudio de SassiJason M Tylianakis
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