Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment

Biodiversity is rapidly declining, and this may negatively affect ecosystem processes, including economically important ecosystem services. Previous studies have shown that biodiversity has positive effects on organisms and processes across trophic levels. However, only a few studies have so far incorporated an explicit food-web perspective. In an eight-year biodiversity experiment, we studied an unprecedented range of above- and below-ground organisms and multitrophic interactions. A multitrophic data set originating from a single long-term experiment allows mechanistic insights that would not be gained from meta-analysis of different experiments. Here we show that plant diversity effects dampen with increasing trophic level and degree of omnivory. This was true both for abundance and species richness of organisms. Furthermore, we present comprehensive above-ground/below-ground biodiversity food webs. Both above ground and below ground, herbivores responded more strongly to changes in plant diversity than did carnivores or omnivores. Density and richness of carnivorous taxa was independent of vegetation structure. Below-ground responses to plant diversity were consistently weaker than above-ground responses. Responses to increasing plant diversity were generally positive, but were negative for biological invasion, pathogen infestation and hyperparasitism. Our results suggest that plant diversity has strong bottom-up effects on multitrophic interaction networks, with particularly strong effects on lower trophic levels. Effects on higher trophic levels are indirectly mediated through bottom-up trophic cascades.     

In vivo analysis of quiescent adult neural stem cells responding to Sonic hedgehog

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) has been implicated in the ongoing neurogenesis in postnatal rodent brains. Here we adopted an in vivo genetic fate-mapping strategy, using Gli1 (GLI-Kruppel family member) as a sensitive readout of Shh activity, to systematically mark and follow the fate of Shh-responding cells in the adult mouse forebrain. We show that initially, only a small population of cells (including both quiescent neural stem cells and transit-amplifying cells) responds to Shh in regions undergoing neurogenesis. This population subsequently expands markedly to continuously provide new neurons in the forebrain. Our study of the behaviour of quiescent neural stem cells provides in vivo evidence that they can self-renew for over a year and generate multiple cell types. Furthermore, we show that the neural stem cell niches in the subventricular zone and dentate gyrus are established sequentially and not until late embryonic stages.