Community-weighted mean functional effect traits determine larval amphibian responses to litter mixtures

Cohen, Jillian S.; Rainford, Shauna-kay; Blossey, Bernd

doi:10.1007/s00442-013-2856-8

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Other studies of detritivore insects confirm the importance of litter nutrient contents for growth or survival (Dudgeon, Ma, & Lam, ; Hättenschwiler & Bretscher, ; Hättenschwiler & Jørgensen, ; Small, Wares, & Pringle, ). Similar relationships have been reported for organismal performance, being positively correlated with litter N content and negatively correlated with lignin (Cohen, Rainford, & Blossey, ; Stoler & Relyea, ; Tuchman et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Leaf litter traits drive community structure and functioning in a natural aquatic microcosm

2018

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Leaf litter fuels secondary production in many aquatic ecosystems. Although the identity and species richness of leaf litter have been shown to influence ecosystem functioning and food‐web composition, it has been challenging to relate such patterns to mechanisms based on litter traits. Here, we investigate how six different leaf litter species, and their mixture, affect litter decomposition, as well as the colonisation and survival of associated aquatic invertebrates in natural microecosystems (tank bromeliads). We then ask whether these effects of litter composition are explained by chemical and structural traits of the litter. Litter composition affected decomposition rates, assembly of aquatic macroinvertebrates in bromeliads and survival of some detritivores (e.g. Chironomidae). In general, most of this effect of litter composition was due to differences between litter species, not between single‐species and six‐species mixtures, and could be explained in terms of two dominant axes in litter traits. Decomposition was fastest in litters with high specific leaf area (SLA), N:P ratios and N and P contents, and slowest in litters with high lignin content and C:N ratios. Chironomid survival was also greatest on high N, N:P and SLA litters. Our results highlight the importance of considering leaf litter traits on the structure and functioning of freshwater ecosystems in future studies. More broadly, these results add to a growing consensus that functional traits of resource species, rather than the number of resource species, are essential to predicting resource–consumer interactions in food webs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Leaf litter traits drive community structure and functioning in a natural aquatic microcosm

2018

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“…(Able and Hagan 2000). However, crustaceans (Able and Hagan 2000), Northern pike (Larochelle et al 2015), certain amphibians, (Cohen et al 2012;Rogalski and Skelly 2012;Martin and Blossey 2013a;Cohen et al 2014), and decomposition processes or macroinvertebrate communities (Kennedy et al 2012) appear to show no negative response to P. australis. This conflicting evidence of P. australis impacts is sufficient caution to avoid conclusions that reductions in cover and area of patches alone will produce benefits for native biota.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management of invasive Phragmites australis in the Adirondacks: a cautionary tale about prospects of eradication

et al. 2017

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Invasive plant management (largely mechanical and chemical) consumes an ever-increasing portion of budgets for land management organizations, but metrics of success, other than extent of areas treated or resources expended is rarely available. Here we assess success of managing 346 populations of invasive Phragmites australis (range 0.36-4134 m 2 ; cover 37-75%) in the Adirondack Park in upstate New York, USA. We began by treating 18 patches in 2010 using herbicide; gradually adding patches treated annually or intermittently for a total of 334 by the end of the project period. We monitored each population annually and if P. australis was present mapped its spatial extent and estimated cover. We considered P. australis eradicated when live stems were absent from a site for at least three consecutive years. Our treatments reduced size and cover of P. australis populations and eradication was achieved at 104 of 294 sites. However, probability of eradicating P. australis over a 7-year project timeframe was 0.83 for the smallest patches (0.36 m 2 ), whereas at medium (45 m 2 ) and large patches ([3000 m 2 ) probability of eradication decreased to 0.26 and 0.02, respectively. Our results question efficacy of managing large P. australis populations with the goal of eradication. We urge conservation organizations to clearly articulate management objectives beyond short-term suppression of target plants and to promote accountability by providing quantitative measurements of outcomes.

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“…Alternatively, species with similar trait values are grouped (i.e., into functional groups), and trait diversity is manipulated as the number of groups represented by a mixture of species (e.g., Tilman et al 1997). An increasing number of studies have used these measures (e.g., Roscher et al 2012, Cohen et al 2014, Frainer et al 2014) to explain correlations between species richness and ecosystem function, but few have attempted to a priori manipulate diversity along these functional indices. To eliminate this imposition and allow researchers to include all relevant traits in a single measure of trait diversity, multivariate indices have been proposed (e.g., RaoQ; Schleuter et al 2010) that incorporate multiple traits into a single, continuous measure.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Litter chemistry and chemical diversity drive ecosystem processes in forest ponds

Stoler

Burke²,

Relyea

2016

Ecology

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Research suggests that a positive relationship exists between diversity and ecological function, yet the multi-trophic effects of biodiversity remain poorly understood. The resource complementarity hypothesis suggests that increasing the trait diversity of resources provides a more complete diet for consumers, elevating consumer feeding rates. Whereas previous tests of this mechanism have measured trait diversity as the variation of single traits or the richness of functional groups, we employed a multivariate trait index to manipulate the chemical diversity of temperate tree litter species in outdoor pond mesocosms. We inoculated outdoor mesocosms with diverse and multi-trophic communities of microbial and macro-consumer species that rely on leaf litter for energy and nutrients. Litter was provided at three levels of chemical trait diversity, a constant level of species richness, and an equal representation of all litter species. Over three months, we measured more than 65 responses, and assessed the effects of litter chemical diversity and chemical trait means (i.e., community-weighted means). We found that litter chemical diversity positively correlated with decomposition rate of leaf litter, but had no effect on biomass or density of producers and consumers. However, the pond communities often responded to chemical trait means, particularly those related to nutrients, structure, and defense. Our results suggest that resource complementarity does have some effect on the release of energy and nutrients from decomposing substrates in forest ponds, but does not have multi-trophic effects. Our results further suggest that loss of tree biodiversity could affect forest ecosystem functionality, and particularly the processes occurring in and around ponds and wetlands.

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Community-weighted mean functional effect traits determine larval amphibian responses to litter mixtures

Cited by 20 publications

References 37 publications

Leaf litter traits drive community structure and functioning in a natural aquatic microcosm

Leaf litter traits drive community structure and functioning in a natural aquatic microcosm

Management of invasive Phragmites australis in the Adirondacks: a cautionary tale about prospects of eradication

Litter chemistry and chemical diversity drive ecosystem processes in forest ponds

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