Functional structure , species richness and functional diversity of aboveground consumers from the Jena Experiment (year 2010)

This data set contains information about the functional structure (overall biomass; abundance of consumers: in different habitat strata; of different food resource specialization, feeding strategies and aerial mobility) of aboveground consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and decomposers) per plots from a grassland plant diversity experiment (the Jena Experiment; Roscher et al. 2004). The experiment was established in 2002, and consists of 80 grassland plots. Plots vary in plant species richness (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 60 species). All plots are mown twice per year, and weeded three times per year to maintain the experimental diversity gradient. We collected ground-associated arthropods over 125 days from May until September 2010 using two pitfall traps of 4.5 cm diameter per plot. During the sampling periods, the field traps were filled with 3% formalin and after emptying the traps, animals were stored in 70% ethanol. Vegetation-associated arthropods were collected by suction sampling in early June and August (during the peak biomass of the plant communities) using a modified commercial vacuum cleaner. We randomly chose three subplots of 0.75 m x 0.75 m within each plot, covered them with a gauze cage of the same size, and sampled arthropods by vacuuming the inside of the cages until we spotted no arthropods anymore. Samples were identified to species level, except for Hymenoptera, which were identified to the level of family or subfamily. We pooled data of all sampling campaigns in 2010 and standardized the resulting abundances between zero and one, separately for pitfall and suction sampling to account for different sampling intensities between the two methods (Hertzog et al. 2016). We focused on species that we sampled more than once during the whole vegetation period.