Interactive effects of precipitation and nitrogen enrichment on multi-trophic dynamics in plant-arthropod communities

Patterns of precipitation and nitrogen (N) deposition are changing in ecosystems worldwide. Simultaneous increases in precipitation and N deposition can relieve co-limiting soil resource conditions for plants and result in synergistic plant responses, which may affect animals and plant responses to higher trophic levels. However, the potential for synergistic effects of precipitation and N deposition on animals and plant responses to herbivores and predators (via trophic cascades) is unclear. We investigated the influence of precipitation and N enrichment on ecological dynamics across three trophic levels, hypothesizing that herbivores and plants would exhibit synergistic responses to the combined influence of precipitation, N amendments and predators. To test this, we conducted a field experiment with arthropods on two model plant species, Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica. First, we characterized the plant-arthropod assemblages, finding that N. tabacum hosted greater abundances of caterpillars, while N. rustica hosted more sap-sucking herbivores. Next, we evaluated the effects of rainwater, soil N, and predatory spider manipulations for both plant-arthropod assemblages. On N. tabacum, water and N availability had an interactive effect on caterpillars, where caterpillars were most abundant with rainwater additions and least abundant when both rainwater and N were added. For N. rustica, foliar chemistry had a synergistic response to all three experimental factors. Compared to spider-absent conditions, leaf N concentration increased and C/N decreased when spiders were present, but this response only occurred under high water and N availability. Spiders indirectly altered plant chemistry via a facilitative effect of spiders on sap-sucking herbivores, potentially due to intra-guild predation, and a positive effect of sap-suckers on foliar N concentration. Our study suggests that predictions of the ecological impacts of altered precipitation and N deposition may need to account for the effects of resource co-limitation on dynamics across trophic levels.