Dryad
Published October 8, 2021 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Weak interactions between strong interactors in an old-field ecosystem: Control of nitrogen cycling by coupled herbivores and detritivores

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Western University
  • 2. Yale University

Description

  1. Interactions between herbivores and detritivores are common in greenhouse and laboratory experiments. Such interactions are thought to cause feedbacks in real ecosystems where the combined actions of these animals create either high or low nutrient cycling rates. There is limited evidence from factorial field experiments to support these expectations.
  2. We present the results of a three-year experiment wherein we factorially manipulated grasshopper herbivores and earthworm detritivores in an old-field ecosystem and tested for significant interaction effects on plants, nitrogen mineralization, and microorganisms. Then, we used a dynamical systems model built and parameterized for the study ecosystem to test the theoretical strength of these interactions. We predicted that grasshoppers and earthworms would have a positive interaction effect on plant growth and nitrogen cycling by driving plant community change.
  3. We found neither evidence for interaction effects on any of the variables we measured nor a consistent change in the composition of the plant community even though the individual effects of grasshoppers and earthworms were as expected. Our dynamical systems model made the same prediction across a broad section of parameter space (e.g., feeding rates, death rates, etc) and after longer term simulations.
  4. Our results suggest that interactions between herbivores and detritivores are only likely in situ when animals have exceptionally high individual effects on ecosystems and where the exogenous forces driving plant community change and soil biogeochemical fluxes are weak.

Notes

The descriptions of all the data columns is included as a Schema file in the data set.

Files

datatomodel2.csv

Files (1.9 GB)

Name Size Download all
md5:025d6176f57d106bdffbb3740de85f29
52.6 kB Preview Download
md5:6074ad2d2c11faff106781f446ef6a4a
1.7 GB Download
md5:f0c8378e0fccb7302e562af5646061d8
167.2 MB Download
md5:28430bb76d24e6ea68fa7ddc5fdde453
69.0 MB Download
md5:72f0449802ef1cc0ae145c200a8f1396
46.3 kB Download
md5:06a565587b7c12b31d73a4126cc3b15b
48.2 kB Download
md5:26ff168a08ece843efd883a6ac2d3249
6.4 kB Download
md5:e3e2bd1956135712204bc22fc611fb62
69.9 kB Download
md5:7165007e95f1e802fe7c81d63b1cf1f9
13.8 kB Download
md5:72cad9c53ee3cbf6c8c1f43f00db3bf7
15.1 kB Preview Download
md5:ac7d06c2b0b0afa0508046d80277a52c
2.0 kB Preview Download
md5:d75a4d50f92eac1e9371f9ebf270f970
23.3 kB Download
md5:feaa79cee832a48ceed115b8ff7971c9
112.2 kB Download
md5:8cd668b05b388c6db1717e82a3e2aaf6
18.9 kB Download

Additional details

Related works

Is derived from
https://github.com/robertwbuchkowski/HerbivoreDetritivoreInteractions (URL)
10.5281/zenodo.5532818 (DOI)