Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation

BORER ET; SEABLOOM E; GRUNER D; HARPOLE WS; HILLEBRAND H; LIND E; ADLER P; ALBERTI J; ANDERSON TM; BAKKER J; BIEDERMAN LA; BLUMENTHAL D; BROWN CS; BRUDVIG LA; BUCKLEY Y; CADDOTE M; CHU C; CLELAND WE; CRAWLEY MJ; DALEO P; DAMSCHEN E; DAVIES K; DECRAPPREO NM; DU G; FIRN J; HAUTIER Y; HECKMAN RW; HECTOR A; HILLERISLAMBERS J; IRIBARNE, O.; KLEIN J; KNOPS J; LA PIERRE K; LEAKEY ADB; LI W; MCDOUGALL AS; MCCULLEY R; MELBOURNE B; MITCHELL CE; MOORE J; MORTENSEN B; O'HALLORAN L; ORROCK JL; PASCUAL J; PROBER SM; PYKE DA; RISCH A; SCHUETZ M; SMITH MD; STEVENS C; SULLIVAN LL; WILLIAMS RJ; WRAGG PD; WRIGHT J; YANG LH

NATURE

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 vol. 508 p. 517 - 520

0028-0836

Human alterations tonutrient cycles1,2 andherbivore communities3?7are affecting global biodiversity dramatically2. Ecological theory predictsthese changes should be strongly counteractive: nutrient additiondrives plant species loss through intensified competition forlight, whereas herbivores prevent competitive exclusion by increasingground-level light, particularly in productive systems8,9. Here weuse experimental data spanning a globally relevant range of conditionsto test the hypothesis that herbaceous plant species losses causedby eutrophicationmay be offset by increased light availability due toherbivory. This experiment, replicated in 40 grasslands on 6 continents,demonstrates that nutrientsand herbivores can serve as counteractingforces to control local plant diversity through light limitation,independent of site productivity, soil nitrogen, herbivore type andclimate. Nutrient addition consistently reduced local diversity throughlight limitation, and herbivory rescued diversity at sites where it alleviatedlight limitation. Thus, species loss fromanthropogenic eutrophicationcan beameliorated in grasslands where herbivory increasesground-level light.