PLoS Biology (Mar 2021)

Intraspecific diversity loss in a predator species alters prey community structure and ecosystem functions.

  • Allan Raffard,
  • Julien Cucherousset,
  • José M Montoya,
  • Murielle Richard,
  • Samson Acoca-Pidolle,
  • Camille Poésy,
  • Alexandre Garreau,
  • Frédéric Santoul,
  • Simon Blanchet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001145
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 3
p. e3001145

Abstract

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Loss in intraspecific diversity can alter ecosystem functions, but the underlying mechanisms are still elusive, and intraspecific biodiversity-ecosystem function (iBEF) relationships have been restrained to primary producers. Here, we manipulated genetic and functional richness of a fish consumer (Phoxinus phoxinus) to test whether iBEF relationships exist in consumer species and whether they are more likely sustained by genetic or functional richness. We found that both genotypic and functional richness affected ecosystem functioning, either independently or interactively. Loss in genotypic richness reduced benthic invertebrate diversity consistently across functional richness treatments, whereas it reduced zooplankton diversity only when functional richness was high. Finally, losses in genotypic and functional richness altered functions (decomposition) through trophic cascades. We concluded that iBEF relationships lead to substantial top-down effects on entire food chains. The loss of genotypic richness impacted ecological properties as much as the loss of functional richness, probably because it sustains "cryptic" functional diversity.