Nutrient Enrichment Increases Invertebrate Herbivory and Pathogen Damage in Grasslands

Authors

Anne Ebeling, University of JenaFollow
Alex T. Strauss, University of Minnesota
Peter B. Adler, Utah State UniversityFollow
Carlos A. Arnillas, University of Toronto-Scarborough
Isabel C. Barrio, Agricultural University of Iceland
Lori A. Biederman, Iowa State University
Elizabeth T. Borer, University of Minnesota, St. Paul
Miguel N. Bugalho, University of Lisbon
Maria C. Caldeira, University of Lisbon
Marc W. Cadotte, University of Toronto-Scarborough
Pedro Daleo, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras
Nico Eisenhauer, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Anu Eskelinen, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Philip A. Fay, USDA-ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory
Jennifer Firn, Queensland University of Technology
Pamela Graff, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Nicole Hagenah, University of Pretoria
Sylvia Haider, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Kimberly J. Komatsu, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Rebecca L. McCulley, University of Kentucky
Charles E. Mitchell, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Joslin L. Moore, Monash University
Jesus Pascual, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras
Pablo L. Peri, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria
Sally A. Power, Western Sydney University
Suzanne M. Prober, CSIRO Land and Water
Anita C. Risch, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Christiane Roscher, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Mahesh Sankaran, National Centre for Biological Sciences
Eric W. Seabloom, University of Minnesota, St. Paul
Holger Schielzeth, University of Jena
Martin Schütz, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Karina L. Speziale, Laboratorio Ecotono
Michelle Tedder, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Risto Virtanen, University of Oulu
Dana M. Blumenthal, Rangeland Resources & Systems Research Unit

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Ecology

Author ORCID Identifier

Anne Ebeling https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3221-4017

Peter B. Adler https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4216-4009

Marc W. Cadotte https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5816-7693

Pedro Daleo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9759-1203

Jennifer Firn https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6026-8912

Pamela Graff https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6042-2673

Sylvia Haider https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-0534

Kimberly J. Komatsu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7056-4547

Rebecca L. McCulley https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2393-0599

Charles E. Mitchell https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1633-1993

Joslin L. Moore https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9809-5092

Anita C. Risch https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0531-8336

Christiane Roscher https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9301-7909

Mahesh Sankaran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1661-6542

Eric W. Seabloom https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6780-9259

Holger Schielzeth https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9124-2261

Karina L. Speziale https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2224-2097

Risto Virtanen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8295-8217

Dana M. Blumenthal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7496-0766

Volume

110

Issue

2

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Publication Date

10-22-2021

First Page

327

Last Page

339

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Abstract

1. Plant damage by invertebrate herbivores and pathogens influences the dynamics of grassland ecosystems, but anthropogenic changes in nitrogen and phosphorus availability can modify these relationships.
2. Using a globally distributed experiment, we describe leaf damage on 153 plant taxa from 27 grasslands worldwide, under ambient conditions and with experimentally elevated nitrogen and phosphorus.
3. Invertebrate damage significantly increased with nitrogen addition, especially in grasses and non-leguminous forbs. Pathogen damage increased with nitrogen in grasses and legumes but not forbs. Effects of phosphorus were generally weaker. Damage was higher in grasslands with more precipitation, but climatic conditions did not change effects of nutrients on leaf damage. On average, invertebrate damage was relatively higher on legumes and pathogen damage was relatively higher on grasses. Community-weighted mean damage reflected these functional group patterns, with no effects of N on community-weighted pathogen damage (due to opposing responses of grasses and forbs) but stronger effects of N on community-weighted invertebrate damage (due to consistent responses of grasses and forbs).
4. Synthesis. As human-induced inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus continue to increase, understanding their impacts on invertebrate and pathogen damage becomes increasingly important. Our results demonstrate that eutrophication frequently increases plant damage and that damage increases with precipitation across a wide array of grasslands. Invertebrate and pathogen damage in grasslands is likely to increase in the future, with potential consequences for plant, invertebrate and pathogen communities, as well as the transfer of energy and nutrients across trophic levels.

Recommended Citation

Ebeling, A., Strauss, A. T., Adler, P. B., Arnillas, C. A., Barrio, I. C., Biederman, L. A., Borer, E. T., Bugalho, M. N., Caldeira, M. C., Cadotte, M. W., Daleo, P., Eisenhauer, N., Eskelinen, A., Fay, P. A., Firn, J., Graff, P., Hagenah, N., Haider, S., Komatsu, K. J., … Blumenthal, D. M. (2022). Nutrient enrichment increases invertebrate herbivory and pathogen damage in grasslands. Journal of Ecology, 110, 327– 339. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13801