Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40110955›Full record

ArticleEcology letters2025

Consumers Modulate Effects of Plant Diversity on Community Stability.

Maowei Liang, Seraina L Cappelli, Elizabeth T Borer, David Tilman, Eric W Seabloom

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Ecology letters, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Maowei LiangCedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, University of Minnesota, East Bethel, Minnesota, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1517-0497
Seraina L CappelliDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8141-404X
Elizabeth T BorerDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2259-5853
David TilmanDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Eric W SeabloomDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6780-9259

Funding

Division of Environmental Biology 1831944
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Biotic complexity, encompassing both competitive interactions within trophic levels and consumptive interactions among trophic levels, plays a fundamental role in maintaining ecosystem stability. While theory and experiments have established that plant diversity enhances ecosystem stability, the role of consumers in the diversity-stability relationships remains elusive. In a decade-long grassland biodiversity experiment, we investigated how heterotrophic consumers (e.g., insects and fungi) interact with plant diversity to affect the temporal stability of plant community biomass. Plant diversity loss reduces community stability due to increased synchronisation among species but enhances the population-level stability of the remaining plant species. Reducing trophic complexity via pesticide treatments does not directly affect either community- or population-level stability but further amplifies plant species synchronisation. Our findings demonstrate that the loss of arthropod or fungal consumers can destabilise plant communities by exacerbating synchronisation, underscoring the crucial role of trophic complexity in maintaining ecological stability.

Indexed as

BiodiversityFood ChainFungiInsectaPlantsAnimalsArthropodsBiomassGrasslandPopulation Dynamicsasynchronybiodiversitycomplexityherbivoryinsurance effectsstabilitytrophic interactions

Identifiers

PMID40110955
PMCPMC11924315

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.