Contrasting responses of above- and below-ground herbivore communities along elevation
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ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY – ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Contrasting responses of above‑ and below‑ground herbivore communities along elevation Camille Pitteloud1,2 · Patrice Descombes2 · Sara Sànchez‑Moreno3 · Alan Kergunteuil4 · Sébastien Ibanez5 · Sergio Rasmann4 · Loïc Pellissier1,2 Received: 12 August 2019 / Accepted: 6 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Above- and below-ground herbivory are key ecosystem processes that can be substantially altered by environmental changes. However, direct comparisons of the coupled variations of above- and below-ground herbivore communities along elevation gradients remain sparse. Here, we studied the variation in assemblages of two dominant groups of herbivores, namely, aboveground orthoptera and belowground nematodes, in grasslands along six elevation gradients in the Swiss Alps. By examining variations of community properties of herbivores and their food plants along montane clines, we sought to determine whether the structure and functional properties of these taxonomic groups change with elevation. We found that orthoptera decreased in both species richness and abundance with elevation. In contrast with aboveground herbivores, the taxonomic richness and the total abundance of nematode did not covary with elevation. We further found a stronger shift in above- than below-ground functional properties along elevation, where the mandibular strength of orthoptera matched a shift in leaf toughness. Nematodes showed a weaker pattern of declined sedentary behavior and increased mobility with elevation. In contrast to the direct exposal of aboveground organisms to the surface climate, conditions may be buffered belowground, which together with the influence of edaphic factors on the biodiversity of soil biota, may explain the differences between elevational patterns of above- and below-ground communities. Our study emphasizes the necessity to consider both the above- and below-ground compartments to understand the impact of current and future climatic variation on ecosystems, from a functional perspective of species interactions. Keywords Environmental gradient · Species richness · Herbivory · Functional traits · Ecological interactions
Introduction
Communicated by Liliane Ruess. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04778-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Camille Pitteloud [email protected] 1
Landscape Ecology, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Unit of Land Change Science, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
2
The study of community properties along environmental gradients is a fundamental and necessary step toward better predictions of the functioning of natural systems (Garnier et al. 2016; Mayor et al. 2017). In most of the taxonomic groups and trophic levels studied so far, bi
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