EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF EFFECTS OF PLANT PRODUCTIVITY AND DIVERSITY ON GRASSLAND ARTHROPOD DIVERSITY

Because the quantity, quality, and heterogeneity of resources should affect the diversity of consumers, plant productivity, plant composition, and plant diversity may influence the diversity of trophic levels higher up the food chain (“bottom-up” control of diversity). Increasing plant productivity may increase herbivore diversity by: increasing the abundance of rare resources (“resource rarity hypothesis”), increasing herbivore abundance and...