Biology subjects

Laessoe, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Laessoe, T..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Simple attributes predict the importance of plants as hosts to the richness of fungi and arthropods

Consumers constitute the vast majority of global terrestrial biodiversity. Yet, local consumer richness is poorly understood. Plant species richness offers a simple hypothesis to how the diversification of carbon substrates may promote the diversity of arthropods and fungi. We took this one step further and used databases on plant-consumer interaction links to derive the richness of associated biota per plant species (link score). Using a species inventory of 130 sites we investigated 1) how well the link score could be predicted by plant attributes and 2) if the sum of plant species observed or predicted link scores could predict site richness of arthropods and macrofungi better than plant species richness alone. We found plant link scores to be positively related to plant size, abundance, nativeness and ectomycorrhizal status. Link based indices generally improved prediction of richness, stressing the importance of plants as niche space for the megadiverse groups of insects and fungi.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Vascular plants are strong predictors of multi-taxon species richness

Plants regulate soils and microclimate, provide substrate for heterotrophic taxa, are easy to observe and identify and have a stable taxonomy, which strongly justifies the use of plants as bioindicators in monitoring and conservation. However, insects and fungi make up the vast majority of species. Surprisingly, it remains untested whether plants are strong predictors of total multi-taxon species richness. To answer this question, we collected an extensive data set on species richness of vascular plants, bryophytes, macrofungi, lichens, plant-galling arthropods, gastropods, spiders, carabid beetles, hoverflies and OTU richness from environmental DNA metabarcoding. Plant species richness per se was a moderate predictor of richness of other taxa. Taking an ecospace approach to modelling, the addition of plant-derived bioindicators revealed 1) a consistently positive effect of plant richness on other taxa, 2) prediction of 12-55% of variation in other taxa and 48 % of variation in the total species richness.

ecology↗