2006/08/17 by Gregory M. Crutsinger, Michael D. Collins, James A. Fordyce +3 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Plant and animal studies #Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies #Ecosystem #Ecology #Biology #Species diversity #Ecosystem diversity #Plant community #Herbivore #Diversity index #Diversity (politics) #Biodiversity #Population #Community structure #Primary production #Species richness
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1128326
openalex publication_date 2006/08/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Theory predicts, and recent empirical studies have shown, that the diversity of plant species determines the diversity of associated herbivores and mediates ecosystem processes, such as aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP). However, an often-overlooked component of plant diversity, namely population genotypic diversity, may also have wide-ranging effects on community structure and ecosystem processes. We showed experimentally that increasing population genotypic diversity in a dominant old-field plant species, Solidago altissima, determined arthropod diversity and community structure and increased ANPP. The effects of genotypic diversity on arthropod diversity and ANPP were comparable to the effects of plant species diversity measured in other studies.