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Relationships between arthropod richness, evenness, and diversity are altered by complementarity among plant genotypes

  • Plant-Animal interactions - Original Paper
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Abstract

Biodiversity is quantified via richness (e.g., the number of species), evenness (the relative abundance distribution of those species), or proportional diversity (a combination of richness and evenness, such as the Shannon index, H′). While empirical studies show no consistent relationship between these aspects of biodiversity within communities, the mechanisms leading to inconsistent relationships have received little attention. Here, using common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) and its associated arthropod community, we show that relationships between arthropod richness, evenness, and proportional diversity are altered by plant genotypic richness. Arthropod richness increased with O. biennis genotypic richness due to an abundance-driven accumulation of species in response to greater plant biomass. Arthropod evenness and proportional diversity decreased with plant genotypic richness due to a nonadditive increase in abundance of a dominant arthropod, the generalist florivore/omnivore Plagiognathas politus (Miridae). The greater quantity of flowers and buds produced in polycultures—which resulted from positive complementarity among O. biennis genotypes—increased the abundance of this dominant insect. Using choice bioassays, we show that floral quality did not change in plant genotypic mixtures. These results elucidate mechanisms for how plant genotypic richness can modify relationships between arthropod richness, evenness, and proportional diversity. More broadly, our results suggest that trophic interactions may be a previously underappreciated factor controlling relationships between these different aspects of biodiversity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Monica Kersch-Becker, Gui Becker, Alexis Erwin, Sergio Rasmann, Mike Stastny, Stuart Campbell, and Ordom Huot for assistance with field work. Katja Poveda, Anurag Agrawal, Andre Kessler, and Brian Wilsey provided constructive feedback that greatly improved this manuscript. This work was funded by a Small Grant in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity (NSF IGERT) to SHM and SCC, and a National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number # 2006-35302-17431, to JST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 4125 Comstock Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Scott H. McArt & Jennifer S. Thaler

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Susan C. Cook-Patton & Jennifer S. Thaler

Authors
  1. Scott H. McArt
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  2. Susan C. Cook-Patton
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  3. Jennifer S. Thaler
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Correspondence to Scott H. McArt.

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Communicated by Roland Brandl.

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McArt, S.H., Cook-Patton, S.C. & Thaler, J.S. Relationships between arthropod richness, evenness, and diversity are altered by complementarity among plant genotypes. Oecologia 168, 1013–1021 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2150-6

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