A Dominant Plant Species and Insects Independently and Interactively Shape Plant Community Structure and Ecosystem Function Above‐ and Below‐Ground
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT It is well‐established that dominant plant species and insect herbivores independently shape community structure and ecosystem function in terrestrial plant communities. Critically, few studies have assessed the combined effects of these two drivers of plant community structure and ecosystem function above‐ and below‐ground or tracked their effects over time. In this study, we factorially manipulated the dominant species Solidago canadensis (Canada goldenrod) and insects in an old field for 3 years and quantified their effects on plant diversity, biomass, functional traits, microclimate, and decomposition. Overall, S. canadensis and insect herbivores independently and interactively shaped aboveground plant biomass, richness, functional traits, microclimate, and the decomposition of soil organic matter. The biomass of the rest of the plant community was higher where S. canadensis was removed and where insects were reduced, in part due to the positive effect of S. canadensis removal on light availability and soil moisture. The highest estimated decomposition rate of soil organic matter occurred where S. canadensis was removed and insects were reduced. Furthermore, the community weighted mean (CWM) of multiple plant functional traits related to competition for light varied with S. canadensis removal and insect reduction; for example, the CWM of plant height was highest where S. canadensis was removed and insects were reduced. After 3 years of experimental manipulation, S. canadensis removal and insect reduction independently and interactively reduced the temporal stability of aboveground plant biomass but not species richness. Altogether, our results highlight the need to consider the potential interactive effects of dominant plants and insect herbivores above‐ and below‐ground to improve our understanding of their role in structuring communities and ecosystems. Furthermore, we find that over 3 growing seasons insect herbivores prevent biomass compensation following S. canadensis removal, emphasizing the importance of insect herbivores in mediating community and ecosystem recovery after biodiversity loss.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".