Abstract
Abstract Grassland fertilisation drives non‐random plant loss resulting in areas dominated by perennial grass species. How these changes cascade through linked trophic levels, however, is not well understood. We studied how grassland fertilisation propagates change through the plant assemblage into the plant–flower‐visitor, plant–leaf miner and leaf miner–parasitoid networks using a year's data collection from a long‐term grassland fertiliser application experiment. Our experiment had three fertiliser treatments each applied to replicate plots 15 m 2 in size: mineral fertiliser, farmyard manure, and mineral fertiliser and farmyard manure combined, along with a control of no fertiliser. The combined treatment had the most significant impact, and both plant species richness and floral abundance decreased with the addition of fertiliser. While insect species richness was unaffected by fertiliser treatment, fertilised plots had a significantly higher abundance of leaf miners and parasitoids and a significantly lower abundance of bumblebees. The plant–flower‐visitor and plant–herbivore networks showed higher values of vulnerability and lower modularity with fertiliser addition, while leaf miner–parasitoid networks showed a rise in generality. The different groups of insects were impacted by fertilisers to varying degrees: while the effect on abundance was the highest for leaf miners, the vulnerability and modularity of flower‐visitor networks was the most affected. The impact on the abundance of leaf miners was positive and three times higher than the impact on parasitoids, and the impact on bumblebee abundance was negative and double the magnitude of impact on flower abundance. Overall, our results show that while insect species richness was unaffected by fertilisers, network structure changed significantly as the replacement of forbs by grasses resulted in changes in relative abundance across trophic levels, with the direction of change depending on the type of network. Synthesis . By studying multiple networks simultaneously, we were able to rank the relative impact of habitat change on the different groups of species within the community. This provided a more holistic picture of the impact of agricultural intensification and provides useful information when deciding on priorities for mitigation.
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Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
The combined mineral fertiliser and farmyard manure treatment had the most significant impact.
Not reportedTaxonComparator
Verbatim
e0“The combined treatment had the most significant impact”
Claim · model-written summary
Plant species richness and floral abundance both decreased with the addition of fertiliser.
- Taxon
- plante0
- Treatment
- addition of fertilisere0
- Outcome
- plant species richness and floral abundancee0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“both plant species richness and floral abundance decreased with the addition of fertiliser”
Claim · model-written summary
Insect species richness was unaffected by fertiliser treatment.
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“insect species richness was unaffected by fertiliser treatment”
Claim · model-written summary
Fertilised plots had a significantly higher abundance of leaf miners.
- Taxon
- leaf minersAgromyzidaee0
- Treatment
- fertilised plotse0
- Interactor
- leaf minersAgromyzidaee0herbivore
- Outcome
- abundance of leaf minerse0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“fertilised plots had a significantly higher abundance of leaf miners and parasitoids”
Claim · model-written summary
Fertilised plots had a significantly lower abundance of bumblebees.
BombusNot reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“a significantly lower abundance of bumblebees”
Claim · model-written summary
Plant-flower-visitor and plant-herbivore networks showed higher vulnerability with fertiliser addition.
Not reportedTaxonComparator
Verbatim
e0“showed higher values of vulnerability and lower modularity with fertiliser addition”
Claim · model-written summary
Plant-flower-visitor and plant-herbivore networks showed lower modularity with fertiliser addition.
Not reportedTaxonComparator
Verbatim
e0“showed higher values of vulnerability and lower modularity with fertiliser addition”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf miner-parasitoid networks showed a rise in generality.
- Taxon
- leaf minere0
- Interactor
- leaf minere0herbivore
- Second interactor
- parasitoide0other
- Outcome
- generalitye0
- Direction
- risee0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“leaf miner–parasitoid networks showed a rise in generality”
Claim · model-written summary
The vulnerability and modularity of flower-visitor networks were the most affected.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“the vulnerability and modularity of flower‐visitor networks was the most affected”
Claim · model-written summary
The positive impact on leaf miner abundance was three times higher than the impact on parasitoids.
- Taxon
- leaf minersAgromyzidaee0
- Interactor
- leaf minersAgromyzidaee0herbivore
- Second interactor
- parasitoidse0other
- Outcome
- abundance of leaf minerse0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- three timese0
- Comparator
- parasitoidse0
Not reportedTreatment
Verbatim
e0“The impact on the abundance of leaf miners was positive and three times higher than the impact on parasitoids”
Claim · model-written summary
The negative impact on bumblebee abundance was double the magnitude of the impact on flower abundance.
- Taxon
- bumblebeee0
- Interactor
- bumblebeee0pollinator
- Outcome
- bumblebee abundancee0
- Direction
- negativee0
- Value
- double the magnitudee0
- Comparator
- flower abundancee0
Not reportedTreatment
Verbatim
e0“the impact on bumblebee abundance was negative and double the magnitude of impact on flower abundance”
Claim · model-written summary
Network structure changed significantly as replacement of forbs by grasses changed relative abundance across trophic levels.
Verbatim
e0“network structure changed significantly as the replacement of forbs by grasses resulted in changes in relative abundance across trophic levels”