Abstract
Artificially increasing primary productivity decreases plant species richness in many habitats; herbivory may affect this outcome, but it has rarely been directly addressed in fertilization studies. This experiment was conducted in two Louisiana coastal marshes to examine the effects of nutrient enrichment and sediment addition on herbaceous plant communities with and without vertebrate herbivory. After three growing seasons, fertilization increased community biomass in all plots, but decreased species density (the number of species per unit area) only in plots protected from herbivory. Herbivory alone did not alter species density at either site. At the brackish marsh, herbivory caused a shift in dominance in the fertilized plots from a species that is considered the competitive dominant, but is selectively eaten, to another less palatable species. At the fresh marsh, increased dead biomass in the absence of herbivory and in the fertilized plots probably contributed to the decrease in species density, perhaps by limiting germination of annuals. Our results support those of other fertilization studies in which plant species density decreases with increased biomass, but only in those plots protected from herbivory.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Fertilization increased community biomass in all plots.
- Taxon
- herbaceous plant communitiese1
- Treatment
- fertilizatione3
- Outcome
- community biomasse3
- Direction
- increasede3
- Qualifier
- After three growing seasonse3
- Setting
- two Louisiana coastal marshese2
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e1“examine the effects of nutrient enrichment and sediment addition on herbaceous plant communities with and without vertebrate herbivory”
e2“conducted in two Louisiana coastal marshes”
e3“After three growing seasons, fertilization increased community biomass in all plots, but decreased species density (the number of species per unit area) only in plots protected from herbivory”
Claim · model-written summary
Fertilization decreased species density only in plots protected from herbivory.
- Taxon
- herbaceous plant communitiese1
- Treatment
- fertilizatione3
- Outcome
- species densitye3
- Direction
- decreasede3
- Qualifier
- only in plots protected from herbivorye3
- Setting
- two Louisiana coastal marshese2
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e1“examine the effects of nutrient enrichment and sediment addition on herbaceous plant communities with and without vertebrate herbivory”
e2“conducted in two Louisiana coastal marshes”
e3“After three growing seasons, fertilization increased community biomass in all plots, but decreased species density (the number of species per unit area) only in plots protected from herbivory”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbivory alone did not alter species density at either site.
- Taxon
- herbaceous plant communitiese1
- Treatment
- Herbivorye4
- Outcome
- species densitye4
- Direction
- did not altere4
- Setting
- two Louisiana coastal marshese2
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e1“examine the effects of nutrient enrichment and sediment addition on herbaceous plant communities with and without vertebrate herbivory”
e2“conducted in two Louisiana coastal marshes”
e4“Herbivory alone did not alter species density at either site”
Claim · model-written summary
At the brackish marsh, herbivory caused a shift in dominance in fertilized plots from a competitively dominant palatable species to a less palatable species.
- Taxon
- herbaceous plant communitiese1
- Treatment
- herbivorye5
- Outcome
- dominancee5
- Direction
- shift in dominancee5
- Setting
- brackish marshe5
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e1“examine the effects of nutrient enrichment and sediment addition on herbaceous plant communities with and without vertebrate herbivory”
e5“At the brackish marsh, herbivory caused a shift in dominance in the fertilized plots from a species that is considered the competitive dominant, but is selectively eaten, to another less palatable species”
Claim · model-written summary
At the fresh marsh, increased dead biomass in the absence of herbivory and in fertilized plots probably contributed to the decrease in species density.
Verbatim
e1“examine the effects of nutrient enrichment and sediment addition on herbaceous plant communities with and without vertebrate herbivory”
e6“At the fresh marsh, increased dead biomass in the absence of herbivory and in the fertilized plots probably contributed to the decrease in species density”