Inner Mongolia (2006–2010)
Anthropogenic modifications of biodiversity through habitat alteration, species invasion, biotic resource overexploitation, and climate change have undoubtedly affected ecosystem functioning and services. This project in the Inner Mongolia grassland (China) examines the effects of plant functional diversity on a variety of ecosystem functions within a guiding framework of ecological stoichiometry. In spring 2006 and 2007, we manipulated plant functional diversity (5 functional groups) in a full factorial design (n=8) in 6m x 6m plots. We will now quantify responses of various aspects of ecosystem functioning across three trophic levels (plants, herbivores, and soil microbes).
Work in the Elser lab focuses on possible responses of grasshoppers to the diversity manipulation.
Collaborators
- Jingle Wu (ASU)
- Shahid Naeem (Columbia)
- Shu-guang Hao (ASU and Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology)
- Le Kang (CAS IOZ)
- Xingguo Han (CAS Institute of Botany)
- Yongfei Bai (ASU and CAS IOB)