IMPACT OF SIMULATED CLIMATE CHANGE ON SLUG GRAZING IN DESIGNED PLANT COMMUNITIES

Climate change is currently altering ecosystem services which are a supply of benefits that support human life and well-being provided by ecosystems to our society. Although recently, many studies have investigated effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions, there is a considerable lack of studies on the responses of invertebrates to climate change. The grazing behavior of slugs is of critical importance in the sparse herbaceous vegetation of cool-temperate zones and also in the temperate regions with seasonally moist climates. They significantly influence the, development, composition and biomass of both semi-natural and designed herbaceous vegetation. This experiment aimed to investigate how the selectivity of grazing by herbivores affected relationships between plant species in designed plant communities under 2050 UK climate change scenarios. Thirty-six species from three different ecological regions were chosen to represent a gradient from well fitted to poorly fitted to the current British climate and from palatable to unpalatable to slugs. They also were selected to share the similar morphological characteristics, regarding canopy size and flower attractiveness for urban green space users. The molluscs showed different behaviours in dry, wet, warm and ambient temperature, and this led to significant differences in the biomass and structure of the plant communities.