DOI: 10.25829/bexis.31413-13
title: Plant species-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, which was 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 species, i.e. at the level of 8-10 focal plant species at each experimental plot (EP), for both forests and grasslands in all regions of the Biodiversity Exploratories (Schorfheide-Chorin, Hainich-Dün, Schwäbische Alb). For each focal plant species, 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: Important notes: This is a collated dataset. Details on the methods used to collect the primary data are given along with the source datasets and the accompanying publication (Neff et al. in review).<br>Detailed description of study design: 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 (diversity only for insect herbivores) were determined based on vegetation data, insect sampling data, as well as data on functional traits. Herbivore assemblages per plant species were determined based on a literature-based interaction database.<br>Sampling design: For each plant species and plot combination, the average herbivory rates are recorded. Metrics of plant composition and abundance and of insect herbivore assemblage composition, abundance, and diversity were determined at the level of the plant-species-plot combinations.<br>Data preparation: Various methods were used to infer the different metrics. Composition metrics rely on multivariate analyses, on identiy/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>Kahl, T., & Bauhus, J. (2014). An index of forest management intensity based on assessment of harvested tree volume, tree species composition and dead wood origin. Nature Conservation, 7, 15-27. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.7.7281<br>Neff, F., Prati, D., Achury, R., Ambarli, D., Bolliger, R., Brändle, M., Freitag, M., Hölzel, N., Kleinebecker, T., Knecht, A., Schäfer, D., Schall, P., Seibold, S., Staab, M., Weisser, W. W., Pellissier, L., Gossner, M. M. (in review). Reduction of invertebrate herbivory by land use is only partly explained by changes in plant and insect characteristics. Ecological Monographs.<br>Ostrowski, A., Lorenzen, K., Petzold, E., & Schindler, S. (2020). Land use intensity index (LUI) calculation tool of the Biodiversity Exploratories project for grassland survey data from three different regions in Germany since 2006, BEXIS 2 module. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3865579<br>Vogt, J., Klaus, V., Both, S., Fürstenau, C., Gockel, S., Gossner, M., Heinze, J., Hemp, A., Hölzel, N., Jung, K., Kleinebecker, T., Lauterbach, R., Lorenzen, K., Ostrowski, A., Otto, N., Prati, D., Renner, S., Schumacher, U., Seibold, S., … Weisser, W. (2019). Eleven years' data of grassland management in Germany. Biodiversity Data Journal, 7, e36387. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e36387<br>Data reference: Gossner, M. M., Simons, N. K., Achtziger, R., Blick, T., Dorow, W. H. O., Dziock, F., Köhler, F., Rabitsch, W., & Weisser, W. W. (2015). A summary of eight traits of Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera and Araneae, occurring in grasslands in Germany. Scientific Data, 2, 150013. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.13