DOI: 10.25829/bexis.31412-13
title: Plant community-level herbivory rates, plant, herbivore insect, and land-use metrics from the Exploratories, used in "Reductions of invertebrate herbivory due to land use are only partly explained by changes in plant and insect characteristics"

description: This is a collated dataset used for the analyses in "Reductions of invertebrate herbivory due to land use are only partly explained by changes in plant and insect characteristics". It contains data on the level of plant communities, i.e. at level of experimental plots (EPs), for both forests and grasslands in all regions of the Biodiversity Exploratories (Schorfheide-Chorin, Hainich-Dün, Schwäbische Alb). For each EP, an average herbivory rate, metrics for taxonomic and functional plant and herbivore insect composition, abundance and diversity are included along with data on land-use intensity (LUI and components in grasslands, ForMI and components in forests). Herbivory rates were measured in 2017–2018, other data come from different years (2008–2018). The data collection/analysis was part of the project FuncNet within the framework of the DFG-funded joint project Biodiversity Exploratories (https://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de).
description: Invertebrate herbivory rates were assessed in most grassland (147) and forest (149) EPs on the 8–10 most abundant plant species of each plot. Few plots could not be sampled, e.g. due to recent mowing activity. To understand how land-use intensity in both systems affects herbivory rates, not only direct links between land-use intensity measures (LUI and components in grasslands; ForMI and components in forests) were considered, but also indirect links through changes in plant and insect herbivore characteristics. To this end, taxonomic and functional metrics of composition, abundance, and diversity of both trophic groups were determined based on vegetation data, insect sampling data, as well as data on functional traits.<br>Sampling design: For each plot, aggregated herbivory rates were determined based on plant-species specific herbivory rates and plant cover values. Metrics of plant community composition, abundance, and diversity and of insect herbivore assemblage composition, abundance, and diversity were determined at the level of EPs.<br>Data preparation: Various methods were used to infer the different metrics. Composition metrics rely on multivariate analyses, on cover of certain functional groups, or on community weighted means of functional traits. Abundance metrics rely on absolute cover/abundance, measured biomass, estimated biomass, leaf area index, or estimated metabolic rates. Diversity measure are Hill numbers of different orders, either based on taxonomic or functional community data. Land-use metrics rely on the land-use intensity index (LUI) framework (Blüthgen et al. 2012, Vogt et al. 2019, Ostrowski et al. 2020) in grasslands and on the forest management intensity index (ForMI) framework (Kahl and Bauhus 2014) in forests. Details on all metrics are given in the accompanying publication (Neff et al. in review)<br>Literature references: Blüthgen, N., Dormann, C. F., Prati, D., Klaus, V. H., Kleinebecker, T., Hölzel, N., Alt, F., Boch, S., Gockel, S., Hemp, A., Müller, J., Nieschulze, J., Renner, S. C., Schöning, I., Schumacher, U., Socher, S. A., Wells, K., Birkhofer, K., Buscot, F., … Weisser, W. W. (2012). A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands: Integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization. Basic and Applied Ecology, 13(3), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2012.04.001<br>