Cascading diversity effects transmitted exclusively by behavioral interactions

Background/Question/Methods

Consumer diversity generally increases resource consumption. Consumers can also impact other species by altering their behavior, but it is unclear how such nonconsumptive effects scale with diversity. We independently manipulated predator species richness, and the consumptive and nonconsumptive effects of predator communities, to measure the role of each factor in protecting Brassica oleracea plants from caterpillar herbivory.

Results/Conclusions

Plant biomass was greatest when diverse predator assemblages induced antipredator behaviors in herbivores, an effect not further strengthened when predators could also kill caterpillars. Predators within diverse communities were more likely to forage on plants, and to disrupt herbivore feeding, reflecting greater aversion to foraging among conspecific than heterospecific competitors. Predator diversity, therefore, initiated behavioral changes at the predator and then herbivore trophic levels, both to the benefit of plants. Our results indicate that strong, emergent species richness effects can be transmitted entirely through behavioral interactions, independent of resource consumption.