TY  - JOUR
A1  - Floren, Andreas
A1  - Horchler, Peter J.
A1  - Müller, Tobias
T1  - The impact of the neophyte tree Fraxinus pennsylvanica [Marshall] on beetle diversity under climate change
JF  - Sustainability
N2  - We studied the impact of the neophyte tree Fraxinus pennsylvanica on the diversity of beetles in floodplain forests along the river Elbe in Germany in 2016, 2017 and in 2020, where 80% of all Fraxinus excelsior trees had died following severe droughts. Beetles were collected by insecticidal knock-down from 121 trees (64 F. excelsior and 57 F. pennsylvanica) and identified to 547 species in 15,214 specimens. The trees sampled in 2016 and 2017 showed no signs of drought stress or ash dieback and serve as a reference for the comparison with the 2020 fauna. The data proved that F. excelsior harbours the most diverse beetle community, which differed also significantly in guild composition from F. pennsylvanica. Triggered by extremely dry and long summer seasons, the 2020 ash dieback had profound and forest-wide impacts. Several endangered, red-listed beetle species of Saxonia Anhalt had increased in numbers and became secondary pests on F. excelsior. Diversity decreased whilst numbers of xylobionts increased on all trees, reaching 78% on F. excelsior. Proportions of xylobionts remained constant on F. pennsylvanica. Phytophages were almost absent from all trees, but mycetophages increased on F. pennsylvanica. Our data suggest that as a result of the dieback of F. excelsior the neophyte F. pennsylvanica might become a rescue species for the European Ash fauna, as it provides the second-best habitat. We show how difficult it is to assess the dynamics and the ecological impact of neophytes, especially under conditions similar to those projected by climate change models. The diversity and abundance of canopy arthropods demonstrates their importance in understanding forest functions and maintenance of ecosystem services, illustrating that their consideration is essential for forest adaptation to climate change.
KW  - forest conversion
KW  - neophyte trees
KW  - ash dieback
KW  - beetle communities
KW  - ecosystem function
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262223
SN  - 2071-1050
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fricke, Ute
A1  - Redlich, Sarah
A1  - Zhang, Jie
A1  - Tobisch, Cynthia
A1  - Rojas-Botero, Sandra
A1  - Benjamin, Caryl S.
A1  - Englmeier, Jana
A1  - Ganuza, Cristina
A1  - Riebl, Rebekka
A1  - Uhler, Johannes
A1  - Uphus, Lars
A1  - Ewald, Jörg
A1  - Kollmann, Johannes
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
T1  - Plant richness, land use and temperature differently shape invertebrate leaf-chewing herbivory on plant functional groups
JF  - Oecologia
N2  - Higher temperatures can increase metabolic rates and carbon demands of invertebrate herbivores, which may shift leaf-chewing herbivory among plant functional groups differing in C:N (carbon:nitrogen) ratios. Biotic factors influencing herbivore species richness may modulate these temperature effects. Yet, systematic studies comparing leaf-chewing herbivory among plant functional groups in different habitats and landscapes along temperature gradients are lacking. This study was conducted on 80 plots covering large gradients of temperature, plant richness and land use in Bavaria, Germany. We investigated proportional leaf area loss by chewing invertebrates (‘herbivory’) in three plant functional groups on open herbaceous vegetation. As potential drivers, we considered local mean temperature (range 8.4–18.8 °C), multi-annual mean temperature (range 6.5–10.0 °C), local plant richness (species and family level, ranges 10–51 species, 5–25 families), adjacent habitat type (forest, grassland, arable field, settlement), proportion of grassland and landscape diversity (0.2–3 km scale). We observed differential responses of leaf-chewing herbivory among plant functional groups in response to plant richness (family level only) and habitat type, but not to grassland proportion, landscape diversity and temperature—except for multi-annual mean temperature influencing herbivory on grassland plots. Three-way interactions of plant functional group, temperature and predictors of plant richness or land use did not substantially impact herbivory. We conclude that abiotic and biotic factors can assert different effects on leaf-chewing herbivory among plant functional groups. At present, effects of plant richness and habitat type outweigh effects of temperature and landscape-scale land use on herbivory among legumes, forbs and grasses.
KW  - climate
KW  - ecosystem function
KW  - land use
KW  - plant guilds
KW  - plant–insect interactions
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-325079
VL  - 199
IS  - 2
ER  -