Dear Grace,

you are right, as high diversity cannot exist at one trophic level only. I faced the same problem doing with ciliates that are normally in some rich communities from minimum three trophic levels. It is like criterium of structural stability. I was really astonished when found these regularities!

So, ecosystems are balanced not only (but in majority?) in species richness but as wel in trophic richness.

I even propose one modification of trophic index by Nesis (in RG):

Ciliatengemeinschaften im Kiewer Stausee. But can use effectively as well Pielou.

You can follow my article on the problem in RG:

Community structure in cryophilic infusoria.

Today I'll put into RG one other:

Structural stability of communities (as exemplified by benthic infusoria) and criteria for evaluation.

I think should right smthng serious by the authors have to do with this complex problem for "Nature" or other top journal!

Andrey

Thanks all for your responses.

Martin, I am most interested in studies that manipulate diversity between different species, but I will check out that review. Thanks! 

Hi Grace,

There are by now several large scale biodiversity experiments that manipulate plant diversity to investigate associated species communities and processes in other trophic levels.

For an overview on forest diversity experiments I suggest to have a look at:

Bruelheide et al. (2014) Designing forest biodiversity experiments: General considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical China. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 5, 74-89.

From those experiments, there should be several case studies that test for the effect of tree diversity on particular taxa or trophic interactions. I contributed to a few papers on that topic. If you have time, have a look at:

Schuldt et al. (2015) Multitrophic diversity in a biodiverse forest is highly nonlinear across spatial scales. Nature Communications, 6, 10169.

Staab et al. (2015) Tree diversity alters the structure of a tri-trophic network in a biodiversity experiment. Oikos, 124, 827-834.

Staab et al. (2014) Tree diversity promotes predator but not omnivore ants in a subtropical Chinese forest. Ecological Entomology, 39, 637-647.

Best,

Michael

Hi Grace,

I know of the study by Scherber et al. looking at the diversity of different species groups in response to a plant diversity treatment. This may be of interest for you.

Scherber, C. et al. (2010) Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment. Nature 468, 553-556.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7323/full/nature09492.html

All the best,

Christian

Thanks Michael and Christian. Just the kind of references I am looking for. 

I am rebuilding a California native grassland ecosystem from scratch, that was destroyed about 150 years ago, and had at least 100 species of native plants, and that is now zero natives, and is now covered 100% by exotics from Europe.  You can see this at http://www.ecoseeds.com/arastradero.html.    If you did the same project at Davis, where you are located only a few hours east from my project in Palo Alto, within six months you could answer your question.  

A plot only 15 meters by 15 meters, and get it back to pure native grassland cover WITH DIVERSITY, then you will see your answer for yourself within six months.  "With diversity" means, only using local native ecotypes of the local native plants, and have at least five species of the native grasses including the native annual Vulpia grass, and a good cross section of the wildflower families that used to grow here--Lily family, sunflower, mint, buckwheat, mustard, bean, rose, purslane, onion, etc.  

And add a lot of native grass straw mulch, about 8-15 cm thick to re-inoculate the soil with the soil fungi that have been missing since the human-ecological cyclone ripped the grasslands out of the ground statewide in the 1800s.

So do very detailed before and after transects, for everything that crawls or flies to your plot, ants, birds, lizards, gophers, humans, etc.  Also count the mushroom species that exist and then come in on their own. You might find restoring the diversity to a small plot, might even attract the attention of humans also.   Whereas an area of low diversity, no attention may be paid.

Like when people are driving southward along Interstate 5 just past the town of Grapevine  in spring, and they round the corner at Gorman, and pull off the freeway and jump out of their cars, and rush into the diversity that has been lost in most parts of the world, after each area was hit and is continuing to be hit by the human-ecological-cyclone.  See photos of diversity at httop://www.ecoseeds.com/wild.html.

That last link should have been http://www.ecoseeds.com/wild.html