Abstract
Biotic complexity, encompassing horizontal (within trophic levels) and
vertical (among trophic levels) complexity, is crucial for ecosystem
stability through various interactions. While plant diversity
(horizontal complexity) is known to enhance ecosystem stability from
both theory and experiments, the role of consumer diversity (vertical
complexity) in these relationships remains underexplored. Over a
decade-long grassland experiment, we investigated the effects of these
dual complexity gradients on the temporal stability of primary producers
by systematically manipulating number of plant species and the presence
of heterotrophic consumers. A loss of plant diversity reduced plant
community stability but increased the population-level stability of the
remaining species. Reducing vertical complexity amplified the
synchronization among species caused by plant diversity loss but did not
affect either community- or population-level stability. These findings
emphasize how consumer diversity loss potentially destabilizes plant
communities by exacerbating synchronization and underscore the crucial
role of trophic complexity in maintaining ecological equilibrium.