Abstract
Across many ecosystems, increases in species biodiversity generally results in greater resource acquisition by consumers. Few studies examining the impacts of consumer diversity on resource capture have focused on terrestrial herbivores, however, especially taxa that feed belowground. Here we conducted field mesocosm experiments to examine the effects of variation in species richness and composition within a community of wireworm herbivores on wheat plant productivity. Our experiments involved wireworm communities consisting of between one and three species, with all possible combinations of species represented. We found that the presence of wireworms reduced plant biomass and seed viability, but wireworm species richness did not impact these plant metrics. Species identity effects were strong, as two species, Limonius californicus and Selatosomus pruininus, had significantly stronger impacts on plants compared to L. infuscatus. Communities with either of the two most impactful species consistently had the greatest impact on wheat plants. The effects of wireworms were thus strongly dependent on the particular species present rather than the overall diversity of the wireworm community. More broadly, our study supports the general finding that the identity of particular consumer species within communities often has greater impacts on ecosystem functioning than species richness.
Highlights
Exclusively on predator-prey or aquatic systems[1]
We conducted a field mesocosm experiment to determine the impacts of wireworm species richness and identity on wheat plant productivity
We found no significant differences between observed plant productivity in diverse communities and the expected productivity based on the averages of each wireworm species present singly (Table 2)
Summary
Exclusively on predator-prey or aquatic systems[1]. Few studies have focused on interactions between herbivore diversity and plant productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. For example, many fields often contain a single wireworm species, while others in the same region contain a diverse mixture of species ( the mechanisms driving this variability remain largely unknown)[18]. Our experiments involved the three most common species in agricultural fields of Washington State, USA; these species accounted for nearly 90% of wireworms collected in regional surveys of 160 fields throughout the Pacific Northwest[18]. These three species are responsible for inflicting significant economic damage to cereal crops in the Pacific Northwest, with up to 70% yield losses in highly infested fields[18]. Our results shed light on the effects of belowground herbivore diversity and species identity on plant productivity
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