Species richness changes across two trophic levels simultaneously affect prey and consumer biomass

• Increasing species richness of primary producers or consumers is proposed to increase primary and secondary production; however, the consequences of biodiversity change across trophic levels has been poorly investigated. We used a controlled marine microbial system to investigate the effects of simultaneous changes in biodiversity of consumer and prey species. Consumer (ciliates) and prey (algae) richness and identity were manipulated independently in a complete factorial design. The results showed clear biodiversity effects of both consumers and prey, within and across trophic levels. We found reduced prey and increased consumer biomass with increased consumer richness, with the most diverse prey assemblage supporting the highest biomass of consumers at the highest richness of consumers. Increasing prey richness did not increase resistance to consumption when consumers were present. Instead, our results indicated enhanced energy transfer with simultaneous increasing richness of consumers and prey.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

biodiversity

consumers

ecosystem functioning

energy transfer

multitrophic

prey

primary production

secondary production

trophic

level

BIODIVERSITY EXPERIMENTS

ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION

FOOD WEBS

DIVERSITY

PREDICTABILITY

PRODUCTIVITY

GRASSLANDS

STABILITY

SELECTION

PATTERNS

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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