Ambient and substrate energy influence decomposer diversity differentially across trophic levels

Peter Kriegel*, Sebastian Vogel, Romain Angeleri, Petr Baldrian, Werner Borken, Christophe Bouget, Antoine Brin, Heinz Bussler, Cristiana Cocciufa, Benedikt Feldmann, Martin M. Gossner, Elena Haeler, Jonas Hagge, Sönke Hardersen, Henrik Hartmann, Joakim Hjältén, Martyna M. Kotowska, Thibault Lachat, Laurent Larrieu, Alexandro B. LeverkusAnna L. M. Macagno, Oliver Mitesser, Jörg Müller, Elisabeth Obermaier, Francesco Parisi, Stefan Pelz, Bernhard Schuldt, Sebastian Seibold, Elisa Stengel, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Wolfgang Weisser, Simon Thorn

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The species-energy hypothesis predicts increasing biodiversity with increasing energy in ecosystems. Proxies for energy availability are often grouped into ambient energy (i.e., solar radiation) and substrate energy (i.e., non-structural carbohydrates or nutritional content). The relative importance of substrate energy is thought to decrease with increasing trophic level from primary consumers to predators, with reciprocal effects of ambient energy. Yet, empirical tests are lacking. We compiled data on 332,557 deadwood-inhabiting beetles of 901 species reared from wood of 49 tree species across Europe. Using host-phylogeny-controlled models, we show that the relative importance of substrate energy versus ambient energy decreases with increasing trophic levels: the diversity of zoophagous and mycetophagous beetles was determined by ambient energy, while non-structural carbohydrate content in woody tissues determined that of xylophagous beetles. Our study thus overall supports the species-energy hypothesis and specifies that the relative importance of ambient temperature increases with increasing trophic level with opposite effects for substrate energy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1157-1173
Number of pages17
JournalEcology Letters
Volume26
Issue number7
Early online date8 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • biodiversity
  • coleoptera
  • deadwood
  • Europe
  • saproxylic
  • species-energy hypothesis
  • trophic guild

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