Predator diversity strengthens trophic cascades in kelp forests by modifying herbivore behaviour

Byrnes, Jarrett E. K.; Stachowicz, John J.; Hultgren, Kristin M.; Hughes, A. Randall; Olyarnik, Suzanne V.; Thornber, Carol S.

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00842.x

Cited by 199 publications

(201 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Here, we provide contrary evidence that diverse protists mixtures substantially reduced bacterial cell numbers ( Supplementary Figure 2). This is further supported by theory (Thebault andLoreau, 2003, 2006), suggesting that increasing generalist predator richness may have a greater effect on prey abundance than increasing specialist predator richness, as well as by field and laboratory studies (Gamfeldt et al, 2005;Byrnes et al, 2006;Griffin et al, 2008) showing that higher consumer or predator biomass because of increasing richness concomitantly resulted in reduced prey biomass.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Diversity of protists and bacteria determines predation performance and stability

et al. 2013

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Predation influences prey diversity and productivity while it effectuates the flux and reallocation of organic nutrients into biomass at higher trophic levels. However, it is unknown how bacterivorous protists are influenced by the diversity of their bacterial prey. Using 456 microcosms, in which different bacterial mixtures with equal initial cell numbers were exposed to single or multiple predators (Tetrahymena sp., Poterioochromonas sp. and Acanthamoeba sp.), we showed that increasing prey richness enhanced production of single predators. The extent of the response depended, however, on predator identity. Bacterial prey richness had a stabilizing effect on predator performance in that it reduced variability in predator production. Further, prey richness tended to enhance predator evenness in the predation experiment including all three protists predators (multiple predation experiment). However, we also observed a negative relationship between prey richness and predator production in multiple predation experiments. Mathematical analysis of potential ecological mechanisms of positive predator diversity-functioning relationships revealed predator complementarity as a factor responsible for both enhanced predator production and prey reduction. We suggest that the diversity at both trophic levels interactively determines protistan performance and might have implications in microbial ecosystem processes and services.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Diversity of protists and bacteria determines predation performance and stability

et al. 2013

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“…Urban management techniques such as treading, bird feeding, mowing and pesticide application negatively impact predacious beetles and hemipterans (Morris and Rispin 1987;Helden and Leather 2004;Orros and Fellowes 2012;Jones and Leather 2012;Orros et al 2015;Bennett and Lovell 2014;Smith et al 2015). Human-induced extinctions and local extirpations are often biased towards higher trophic levels (Pauly et al 1998;Jackson et al 2001;Duffy 2002;Byrnes et al 2005), and that losses of even one or two species that belong to higher trophic levels can cause cascading effects on species present on basal trophic levels (Paine 2002;Schmitz 2003) and critically affect ecosystem processes (Tilman et al 1997;Byrnes et al 2005;Hooper et al 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does urbanization explain differences in interactions between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies and mutualists?

Rocha

Fellowes

2018

Urban Ecosyst

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Urbanization can alter the composition of arthropod communities. However, little is known about how urbanization affects ecological interactions. Using experimental colonies of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae Scopoli reared on Vicia faba L, we asked if patterns of predator-prey, host-parasitoid and ant-aphid mutualisms varied along an urbanization gradient across a large town in southern England. We recorded the presence of naturally occurring predators, parasitoid wasps and mutualistic ants together with aphid abundance. We examined how biotic (green areas and plant richness) and abiotic features (impervious surfaces and distance to town center) affected (1) aphid colony size, (2) the likelihood of finding predators, mutualistic ants and aphid mummies (indicating the presence of parasitoids), and (3) how the interplay among these factors affected patterns of parasitoid attack, predator abundance, mutualistic interactions and aphid abundance. Aphid abundance was best explained by the number of mutualistic ants attending the colonies. Aphid predators responded negatively to both the proportion of impervious surfaces and to the number of mutualistic ants farming the colonies, and positively to aphid population size, whereas parasitized aphids were found in colonies with higher numbers of aphids and ants. The number of mutualistic ants attending was positively associated with aphid colony size and negatively with the number of aphid predators. Our findings suggest that for insect-natural enemy interactions, urbanization may affect some groups, while not influencing others, and that local effects (mutualists, host plant presence) will also be key determinants of how urban ecological communities are formed.

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“…The role of predator diversity in regulating plant and herbivore dynamics and ecosystem functioning is complex (Ives et al 2005, Duffy et al 2007, Bruno and Cardinale 2008, Letourneau et al 2009). Many reports show that increasing predator diversity can either strengthen or weaken the predator effect on other trophic levels (e.g., Losey and Denno 1998, Sinclair et al 2003, Byrnes et al 2006, Schmitz 2009). As found in plant diversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, mechanisms underlying positive effects of predator diversity on predation rate could include sampling effects and complementary use of prey taxa or foraging microhabitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A brown-world cascade in the dung decomposer food web of an alpine meadow: effects of predator interactions and warming

Duffy

Reich

et al. 2011

Ecological Monographs

107

113

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Abstract. Top-down control has been extensively documented in food webs based on living plants, where predator limitation of herbivores can cascade to facilitate plant growth (the green-world hypothesis), particularly in grasslands and aquatic systems. Yet the ecosystem role of predators in detrital food webs is less explored, as is the potential effect of climate warming on detritus-based communities. We here show that predators have a ''brown-world'' role in decomposer communities via a cascading top-down control on plant growth, based on the results of an experiment that factorially manipulated presence and size of two predator species as well as temperature (warmed vs. unwarmed). The inclusion of predatory beetles significantly decreased abundance of coprophagous beetles and thus the rate of dung decomposition and productivity of plants growing surrounding the dung. Moreover, the magnitude of these decreases differed between predator species and, for dung loss, was temperature dependent. At ambient temperature, the larger predators tended to more strongly influence the dung loss rate than did the smaller predators; when both predators were present, the dung loss rate was higher relative to the treatments with the smaller predators but comparable to those with the larger ones, suggesting an antagonistic effect of predator interaction. However, warming substantially reduced dung decomposition rates and eliminated the effects of predation on dung decomposition. Although warming substantially decreased dung loss rates, warming only modestly reduced primary productivity. Consistent with these results, a second experiment exploring the influence of the two predator species and warming on dung loss over time revealed that predatory beetles significantly decreased the abundance of coprophagous beetles, which was positively correlated with dung loss rates. Moreover, experimental warming decreased the water content of dung and hence the survival of coprophagous beetles. These results confirm that the ''brown-world'' effect of predator beetles was due to cascading top-down control through coprophagous beetles to nutrient cycling and primary productivity. Our results also highlight potentially counterintuitive effects of climate warming. For example, global warming might significantly decrease animalmediated decomposition of organic matter and recycling of nutrients in a future warmed world.

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Predator diversity strengthens trophic cascades in kelp forests by modifying herbivore behaviour

Cited by 199 publications

References 70 publications

Diversity of protists and bacteria determines predation performance and stability

Diversity of protists and bacteria determines predation performance and stability

Does urbanization explain differences in interactions between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies and mutualists?

A brown-world cascade in the dung decomposer food web of an alpine meadow: effects of predator interactions and warming

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