Equivalence in the strength of deer herbivory on above and below ground communities |
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| Authors: | Jean-Philippe Lessard W Nicholas Reynolds Windy A Bunn Mark A Genung Melissa A Cregger Emmi Felker-Quinn M Noelia Barrios-Garcia Mary L Stevenson R Michael Lawton Claire B Brown Maggie Patrick Janet H Rock Michael A Jenkins Joseph K Bailey Jennifer A Schweitzer |
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| Institution: | 1. Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States;2. Inventory and Monitoring Program, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1316 Cherokee Orchard Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, United States;3. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, 715 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States;1. School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan;2. National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan 350, Taiwan;3. Department of Hygiene, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8556, Japan;1. Department de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;2. School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville 3052 VIC, Australia;3. CREAF, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain;4. Avda. Riera de Cassoles 30, 08012 Barcelona, Spain;5. Institute of Research in Biodiversity (IRBio), University of Barcelona, Spain;6. Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;8. Department of Integrative Ecology, EBD-CSIC, Sevilla, Spain;1. University of California, Davis, Department of Plant Sciences, Davis, CA 95616, USA;2. University of Hohenheim, Institute for Plant Production and Agricultural Ecology in the Tropics and Subtropics, Garbenstr. 13, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany;3. Utah State University, Department of Wildland Resources, 5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322, USA;1. Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, Öster Malma, SE-611 91 Nyköping, Sweden;2. Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 49, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden;3. Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, Uppsala Science Park, SE-751 83 Uppsala, Sweden;4. Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden;5. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7044, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden;1. University of Northern British Columbia, Ecosystem Science and Management, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9, Canada;2. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development, Coast Forest Region Research Section, Suite #103 - 2100 Labieux Road, Nanaimo, British Columbia V9T 6E9, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Herbivores exert a strong influence on the species composition and richness of plant communities, but the magnitude of their effect on belowground communities remains poorly understood. While an increasing number of studies acknowledge the importance of documenting belowground effects of herbivores, very few of these evaluate variation in the strength of the response from aboveground to belowground communities. Our study documents the long-term consequences of sustained deer herbivory for plant and arthropod communities adjacent to 15 exclosures that have been in place since 1996. We hypothesized that herbivory would alter the composition and diversity of communities, but the strength of the effects of herbivory would weaken from plants, to leaf-litter invertebrates, and to belowground microarthropod communities. First, we found that herbivory negatively impacted plant seedling and sapling abundance and performance, reduced the abundance of ants and the taxonomic richness of arthropods in the litter layer and reduced the richness of soil microarthropod communities. Second, in contrast to our hypothesis, the magnitude of effect size did not vary among trophic levels, indicating that effects of deer herbivory cascade from plants to the leaf-litter and soil arthropod communities with equal strength. While much recent research has focused on how specific traits of plants may mediate the effects of herbivory on associated species, our results suggest that indirect effects of herbivory might influence many components of belowground communities. |
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