Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Biogeco, INRA, University of Bordeaux, F-33610, Cestas, France.
Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 5;9(1):5675. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42249-z.
Nutrient availability is important for plant community composition and diversity, but most studies focus on inorganic nutrients. Far less is known about the impact of nutrients in organic forms such as herbivore dung. Here we show that dung of 11 European herbivore species varies widely in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations, as well as in C:N:P ratios. We demonstrate that variation in dung quality of five herbivore species influences the diversity and composition of a mesocosm plant community. The impact of dung quality was at least as strong as, or stronger than, the effect of manipulating the quantity of dung by a factor six. Our study supports the hypothesis that both nutrient quantity and nutrient imbalances are important controlling factors for plant species diversity, and stresses the important role of herbivores on plant communities, not only via selective foraging, but also via stoichiometric variation of nutrients in their dung.
养分的可利用性对植物群落的组成和多样性很重要，但大多数研究都集中在无机养分上。对于以草食动物粪便等有机形式存在的养分的影响，人们知之甚少。在这里，我们表明，11 种欧洲草食动物的粪便在氮（N）和磷（P）浓度以及 C:N:P 比例方面差异很大。我们证明，五种草食动物粪便质量的变化会影响中观尺度植物群落的多样性和组成。粪便质量的影响至少与通过六倍因子操纵粪便数量的影响一样强，或者更强。我们的研究支持了这样一种假设，即养分数量和养分失衡都是控制植物物种多样性的重要因素，并强调了食草动物对植物群落的重要作用，不仅通过选择性觅食，还通过它们粪便中养分的化学计量变化。
