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Plant-invertebrate interactions across a forested retrogressive chronosequence

View ORCID ProfileAnne Kempel, View ORCID ProfileEric Allan, View ORCID ProfileMartin M. Gossner, View ORCID ProfileMalte Jochum, View ORCID ProfileDavid A. Wardle
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.30.486383
Anne Kempel
1Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901-83 Umeå, Sweden
2WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche research SLF, Flüelastrasse 11, 7260 Davos, Switzerland
3Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Center CERC, Flüelastrasse 11, 7260 Davos, Switzerland
4University of Bern, Institute of Plant Sciences, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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  • For correspondence: anne.kempel@slf.ch
Eric Allan
4University of Bern, Institute of Plant Sciences, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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Martin M. Gossner
5Forest Entomology, WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
6ETH Zurich, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
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Malte Jochum
7German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstrasse 4, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
8Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Puschstrasse 4, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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David A. Wardle
9Nanyang Technological University, Asian School of the Environment, Singapore 639798, Singapore
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Abstract

In the long-term absence of disturbance, ecosystems often enter a decline or retrogressive phase which leads to reductions in primary productivity, plant biomass, nutrient cycling and foliar quality. However, the consequences of ecosystem retrogression for higher trophic levels such as herbivores and predators, are less clear. Using a post-fire forested island-chronosequence across which retrogression occurs, we show that nutrient availability strongly controls invertebrate herbivore biomass when predators are few, but that there is a switch from bottom-up to top-down control when predators are common. This trophic flip in herbivore control probably arises because invertebrate predators respond to alternative energy channels from the adjacent aquatic matrix, which were independent of plant biomass. Our results suggest that effects of nutrient limitation, following ecosystem retrogression, on trophic cascades are modified by independent variation in predator abundance, which requires a more holistic approach to trophic ecology to better understand herbivore effects on plant communities.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Statement of authorship: AK and DW designed the study, AK collected the data, MJ calculated invertebrate biomass, AK analysed the data with substantial input from EA and wrote the manuscript with substantial input from EA, DW, MG and MJ.

  • Data accessibility statement: Should the manuscript be accepted, the data supporting the results will be archived in a public repository (Dryad) and the data DOI will be provided.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted March 31, 2022.
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Plant-invertebrate interactions across a forested retrogressive chronosequence
Anne Kempel, Eric Allan, Martin M. Gossner, Malte Jochum, David A. Wardle
bioRxiv 2022.03.30.486383; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.30.486383
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Plant-invertebrate interactions across a forested retrogressive chronosequence
Anne Kempel, Eric Allan, Martin M. Gossner, Malte Jochum, David A. Wardle
bioRxiv 2022.03.30.486383; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.30.486383

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