Tree phylogenetic diversity structures multitrophic communities

Abstract

Plant diversity begets diversity at other trophic levels. While species richness is the most commonly used measure for plant diversity, the number of evolutionary lineages (i.e. phylogenetic diversity) could theoretically have a stronger influence on the community structure of co‐occurring organisms. However, this prediction has only rarely been tested in complex real‐world ecosystems. Using a comprehensive multitrophic dataset of arthropods and fungi from a species‐rich subtropical forest, we tested whether tree species richness or tree phylogenetic diversity relates to the diversity and composition of organisms. We show that tree phylogenetic diversity but not tree species richness determines arthropod and fungi community composition across trophic levels and increases the diversity of predatory arthropods but decreases herbivorous arthropod diversity. The effect of tree phylogenetic diversity was not mediated by changed abundances of associated organisms, indicating that evolutionarily more diverse plant communities increase niche opportunities (resource diversity) but not necessarily niche amplitudes (resource amount). Our findings suggest that plant evolutionary relatedness structures multitrophic communities in the studied species‐rich forests and possibly other ecosystems at large. As global change non‐randomly threatens phylogenetically distinct plant species, far‐reaching consequences on associated communities are expected. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Diverse phylogenetic neighborhoods enhance community resistance to drought in experimental assemblages

“…Indeed, the identification of niche differences should be even more feasible throughout the phylogenetic than the functional approach 14 , 24 , because the latter would require the analysis of several traits most of which might be hard or impossible to measure 16 , 25 . Thus, phylogenetic diversity could represent more reliably niche differences than functional diversity 26 – 30 , but see Ref. 31 ).…”

What shapes ground beetle assemblages in a tree species-rich subtropical forest?

“…Traps were emptied fortnightly (in total ten collections per trap) and catches were preserved in 70% ethanol until identification ( Schuldt et al 2011 ). Flight interception traps were installed close to the pitfall traps in 2010 ( Schuldt et al 2015a ; Staab et al 2021 ). Ground beetles were sorted and body length was measured for biomass calculation (see section Statistical analysis ).…”

“…Relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions and the effects of environmental variables have been studied extensively in this area (e.g., Schuldt et al 2010 ; Lang et al 2012 ; Staab et al 2014 ; Eichenberg et al 2015 ; Zou et al 2015 ; O’Brien et al 2016 ; Brezzi et al 2017 ). However, while the main abiotic and biotic drivers potentially shaping herbivore, decomposer and predator diversities have been studied (e.g., Schuldt et al 2011 ; Staab et al 2014 ; Schuldt et al 2015a ; Binkenstein et al 2018 ; Staab et al 2021 ) studies on ground beetles are still lacking for this National Park.…”

Phylogenetic relatedness, functional traits, and spatial scale determine herbivore co‐occurrence in a subtropical forest

“…For insects, studies have suggested high correlations between phylogenetic structure and species cooccurrences across different areas (e.g. Ceccarelli et al 2020, Seifert et al 2020, Staab et al 2020). However, it is still unclear how phylogenetic distance and functional traits affect co-occurrence within two trophic levels (Gotelli & McCabe 2002, Kraft et al 2015.…”