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Top predator control of plant biodiversity and productivity in an old-field ecosystem
Article first published online: 14 JAN 2003
DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00412.x
1461-0248/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=e313f39a0d6209f7d805ea0ca3942ff5a49304ad "Ecology Letters")
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How to Cite
Schmitz, O. J. (2003), Top predator control of plant biodiversity and productivity in an old-field ecosystem. Ecology Letters, 6: 156–163. doi: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00412.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 14 JAN 2003
- Article first published online: 14 JAN 2003
- Manuscript received 9 September 2002, First decision made 21 October 2002, Manuscript accepted 7 November 2002
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Keywords:
- Diversity and productivity;
- grasshoppers;
- indirect effects;
- old-field ecosystem;
- plant diversity;
- predators and ecosystem function;
- spiders;
- top-down control;
- trait-mediated effects;
- trophic cascade
Abstract Predators can have strong indirect effects on plants by altering the way herbivores impact plants. Yet, many current evaluations of plant species diversity and ecosystem function ignore the effects of predators and focus directly on the plant trophic level. This report presents results of a 3-year field experiment in a temperate old-field ecosystem that excluded either predators, or predators and herbivores and evaluated the consequence of those manipulations on plant species diversity (richness and evenness) and plant productivity. Sustained predator and predator and herbivore exclusion resulted in lower plant species evenness and higher plant biomass production than control field plots representing the intact natural ecosystem. Predators had this diversity-enhancing effect on plants by causing herbivores to suppress the abundance of a competitively dominant plant species that offered herbivores a refuge from predation risk.