Light competition drives herbivore and nutrient effects on plant diversity
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research · German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research · +4 more institutions
Abstract
. Empirical tests of the role of competition for light in natural systems are based on indirect evidence, and have been a topic of debate for the last 40 years. Here we show that experimentally restoring light to understory plants in a natural grassland mitigates the loss of plant diversity that is caused by either nutrient enrichment or the absence of mammalian herbivores. The initial effect of light addition on restoring diversity under fertilization was transitory and outweighed by the greater effect of herbivory on light levels, indicating that herbivory is a major factor that controls diversity, partly through light. Our results provide direct experimental evidence, in a natural system, that competition…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 59.39
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 47
Authors
5- AEAnu EskelinenCorresponding
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, University of Oulu
- WSW. Stanley Harpole
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
- MJMaria‐Theresa Jessen
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
- RVRisto Virtanen
University of Oulu
- YHYann Hautier
Utrecht University
Topics & keywords
- Herbivore
- Understory
- Biodiversity
- Competition (biology)
- Grassland
- Ecology
- Ecosystem
- Biology
- Life in Land