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Fertilizer application decreases insect abundance on Plantago lanceolata: a large-scale experiment in three geographic regions

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Abstract

Humans have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle of ecosystems through the application of agricultural fertilizer. Fertilization may not only affect plant species diversity, but also insect dynamics by altering plant nitrogen supplies. We investigated the effect of experimental fertilization on the vegetation, with the ribwort plantain as the focal plant, and on higher trophic levels on differently managed grasslands throughout Germany. Over a period of 2 years, we examined two specialist herbivores and their parasitoid on Plantago lanceolata L., and the composition and structure of the surrounding vegetation. Over 70 sites in three geographic regions, within the large-scale project “German Biodiversity Exploratories”, were included in the study. The model system consisted of the host plant P. lanceolata L., the monophagous weevils Mecinus labilis Herbst and M. pascuorum Gyllenhal, and their parasitoid Mesopolobus incultus Walker. Fertilization decreased plant species richness and host plant abundance, whereas it enhanced the total vegetation growth. The increased size and heigher leaf nitrogen content did not improve herbivore performance. On the contrary, the abundance of the two herbivores was decreased by fertilization. The parasitoid depended on the abundance of one of its hosts, M. pascuorum (positively density-dependent). Reduced herbivore abundance due to fertilization might be explained by a lower abundance of the host plant, a lower stalk number, and by changed patterns of host localization within higher vegetation. Fertilization negatively affected the third trophic level by cascading up via host abundance. The relationships between fertilization, surrounding vegetation and the tritrophic system were measured throughout the three regions and over the 2-year period. Our findings present consequences of intensification for a plant–herbivore–parasitoid system, and may have significant implications for the conservation of multitrophic systems in managed grasslands.

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Acknowledgments

The work has been funded by the DFG (German research foundation) Priority Program 1374 “Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories” [OB 185/2-1, ME 1810/5-1]. We would like to thank the DFG for funding the large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research project Biodiversity Exploratories, the local implementation teams for providing the plot infrastructure and the BEO for the organization. Field work permits were given by state environmental offices according to § 72 BbgNatSchG. Markus Fischer, Elisabeth K. V. Kalko, K. Eduard Linsenmair, Dominik Hessenmöller, Jens Nieschulze, Daniel Prati, Ingo Schöning, François Buscot, Ernst-Detlef Schulze and Wolfgang W. Weisser for their role in setting up the Biodiversity Exploratories project. We want to thank Manfred Forstreuter for technical help with the C/N analyser, Peter Sprick for the help with weevil species identification, Stefan Vidal and Lars Krogmann for identification of the hatched parasitoids, and Swen Renner, Sonja Gockel and Martin Gorke for their support in the three exploratories. Furthermore, we thank Sabrina Arnold, Sophia Bode, Anne Brauckmann, Philipp Braun, Judith Escher, Andrea Hilpert, Matthias Jäger, Benjamin Kolbe, Nadine Kunkel, Daniel Roth, Jakob Sänger, Sebastian Stragies and Michael Walther for their fieldwork assistance and help in the laboratory. At last, we thank Karen Voss and Kathryn Barto for English revision.

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  1. Elisabeth Obermaier

    Present address: Ecological Botanical Gardens, University of Bayreuth, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany

    Christine Hancock, Karl Eduard Linsenmair & Elisabeth Obermaier

  2. Institute of Biology, Applied Zoology/Animal Ecology, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Strasse 9, 12163, Berlin, Germany

    Nicole Wäschke & Torsten Meiners

  3. Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Biodiversity Exploratory Schorfheide-Chorin, University of Potsdam, Hoher Steinweg 5-6, 16278, Angermünde, Germany

    Uta Schumacher

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Hancock, C., Wäschke, N., Schumacher, U. et al. Fertilizer application decreases insect abundance on Plantago lanceolata: a large-scale experiment in three geographic regions. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 7, 147–158 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-012-9237-9

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