TY  - JOUR
A1  - Koerner, Katrin
A1  - Pfestorf, Hans
A1  - May, Felix
A1  - Jeltsch, Florian
T1  - Modelling the effect of belowground herbivory on grassland diversity
T2  - Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog
N2  - One challenging question in ecology is to explain species coexistence in highly diverse temperate grassland plant communities. Within this context, a clear understanding of the consequences of belowground herbivory for the composition and the diversity of plant communities continue to elude ecologists. The existing body of empirical evidence reveals partly contradictory responses ranging from negative to neutral or positive effects of belowground herbivory on grassland diversity.
 To reveal possible mechanistic grounds for these discrepancies, we extended an existing simulation model of grassland communities based on plant functional types to include root herbivory. This enabled us to test the effects of different feeding modes that represent different herbivore guilds. For each belowground feeding mode, we systematically varied the intensity and frequency of herbivory events for three different levels of soil fertility both in the presence and absence of additional aboveground grazing.
 Our modelling approach successfully reproduced various empirically reported diversity responses, merely on the basis of the different feeding modes. Different levels of plant resource availability affected the strength, but not the direction of the belowground herbivory effects. The only exception was the scenario with low resource levels, which promoted neutral (neither positive nor negative) diversity responses for some of the feeding modes. Interestingly, aboveground biomass production was largely unaffected by diversity changes induced by belowground herbivory except in the case of selective feeding modes that were related to specific functional traits.
 Our findings provide possible explanations for the broad spectrum of belowground herbivory effects on plant community diversity. Furthermore, the presented theoretical modelling approach provides a suitable conceptual framework to better understand the complex linkage between plant community and belowground herbivory dynamics.
KW  - Belowground herbivory
KW  - Individual based simulation model
KW  - Plant functional types
KW  - Species coexistence
KW  - IBC-grass model
KW  - ODD protocol
Y1  - 2014
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/38058
SN  - 0304-3800
SN  - 1872-7026
VL  - 273
SP  - 79
EP  - 85
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -