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Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 13, 2025

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter
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Tree communities and functional traits determine herbivore compositional turnover.

Ming-Qiang Wang1,2,3, Zhixin Wen2, Jinzhao Ke1,4

  • 1CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4 Renmin South Road, Wuhou District, Chengdu, 610041, China.

Oecologia
|October 13, 2023
PubMed
Summary

Plant community traits, not climate, drive caterpillar species turnover in forests. This highlights how tree diversity impacts insect composition, crucial for forest management and conservation efforts.

Keywords:
BEF-ChinaCaterpillarsCommon speciesRare speciesSpecies turnoverTree diversityTrophic interactionsZeta diversity

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Biodiversity Research
  • Forest Science

Background:

  • Species turnover is a key ecological process, but the underlying mechanisms driving it remain incompletely understood.
  • Understanding herbivore responses to plant diversity is critical for predicting ecosystem stability and function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the patterns and drivers of species turnover in Lepidoptera herbivores across a tree species richness gradient.
  • To differentiate the roles of plant community characteristics versus abiotic factors in shaping herbivore composition.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized comprehensive datasets from the BEF-China experiment, the world's largest tree diversity experiment.
  • Employed zeta diversity to quantify shared herbivore species and multi-site generalized dissimilarity modeling.
  • Analyzed species turnover of Lepidoptera herbivores among study plots along a tree species richness gradient.

Main Results:

  • Zeta diversity decreased sharply with an increasing number of study plots, indicating significant species turnover.
  • Complete changes in caterpillar species composition were observed even at fine spatial scales.
  • Plant community characteristics were identified as primary drivers of herbivore compositional turnover, outweighing abiotic factors.

Conclusions:

  • Tree phylogeny- and trait-mediated processes significantly impact herbivore compositional turnover.
  • The influence of plant communities on turnover varied with the number of plots considered, due to rare and common species contributions.
  • Findings provide insights for forest management and conservation strategies aimed at maintaining herbivore community heterogeneity.