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Herbivores Alleviate The Negative Effects Of Extreme Drought On Plant Community By Enhancing Dominant Species, Chong Xu, Yuguang Ke, Honghui Wu, Melinda D. Smith, Nathan P. Lemoine, Weiguo Zhang, Qiang Yu
Herbivores Alleviate The Negative Effects Of Extreme Drought On Plant Community By Enhancing Dominant Species, Chong Xu, Yuguang Ke, Honghui Wu, Melinda D. Smith, Nathan P. Lemoine, Weiguo Zhang, Qiang Yu
Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications
Aims
Both extreme drought and insect herbivores can suppress plant growth in grassland communities. However, most studies have examined extreme drought and insects in isolation, and there is reason to believe that insects might alter the ability of grasslands to withstand drought. Unfortunately, few studies have tested the interactive effects of extreme drought and insect herbivores in grassland communities.
Methods
Here, we tested the drought–herbivore interactions using a manipulative experiment that factorially crossed extreme drought with the exclusion of insect herbivores in a temperate semiarid grassland in Inner Mongolia.
Important Findings
Our results demonstrated that both extreme drought and insect …