Dynamic feedbacks among tree functional traits, termite populations and deadwood turnover

Changes in the composition of plant functional traits may affect ecosystem processes through influencing trophic interactions. Bottom‐up control by plant species through food availability to animals may vary with time. However, such dynamics and their consequences for deadwood turnover are poorly known for detrital food webs. We introduce a dynamic conceptual model of the feedback of tree functional traits, (deadwood‐feeding) termite populations and deadwood decomposition. We hypothesized that tree functional diversity (in terms of a wood resource economic spectrum [WES]) supports the sustenance of termite populations via complementary food supplied through time, as deadwood varies in traits both initially across species and because of different decomposition rates. Simultaneously, driven by this temporal dynamics of food quality, the consumption of deadwood by termites should hypothetically sustain deadwood turnover in a functionally diverse forest over time. We tested our hypothesis through an 18‐month termite‐exclusion decomposition experiment by incubating coarse (i.e. 5 cm diameter) deadwood of 34 woody species in two subtropical forests in East China. One site still sustained a healthy population of pangolins as the keystone termite predator, whereas another had lost its pangolins due to hunting and illegal wildlife trade. The results supported our hypothesis: in the first 12 months, termites amplified the positive linear relationship between % wood mass loss and initial wood quality (WES). In contrast, between 12 and 18 months, termite‐mediated consumption, and associated wood mass loss, showed a humpback relation with the initial WES. This shift in termite preference of deadwood species along the WES reflects complementary food availability to termites through time. Synthesis. Our findings imply that tree functional composition, with variation in deadwood quality through decomposition time, can help to sustain termite populations and thereby forest carbon turnover. Future studies need to test whether and how our conceptual model may apply to other detrital systems and food webs. In general, food web research would benefit from a stronger focus on temporal patterns for better understanding the interactions of basal resource functional traits and consumers on ecosystem functions. 摘要 植物功能性状成分的变化可通过影响营养级间的相互作用而对生态系统过程产生影响。植物通过上行效应来影响动物的食物资源可获得性, 且这种上行效应会随时间而变化。然而, 我们对碎屑食物网中这种动态的上行效应, 及其对木质残体分解的影响的理解尚非常有限。 本研究提出了一个反映树木功能性状、白蚁种群和木质残体分解之间相互动态反馈的概念模型。我们假设,