In 2005, scientists began reshaping an Inner Mongolia grassland; years later, plant-eating insects...

Herbivore species dynamics is key to grassland food web stability In 2005, scientists began reshaping a semi-arid grassland in Inner Mongolia by changing its mix of plants. Years later, when researchers checked how the local food chain held together, plant-eating insects emerged as its strongest biological buffer.The long-term study, published on 18 July in the Journal of Animal Ecology, shows that plant-eating species act as a main stabilizer for the entire ecosystem. Rather than just eating up plants, the staggered population changes of different herbivore species over time act like a natural shock absorber that protects the whole food web.The study was led by primary author Takehiro Sasaki, a professor in the Faculty of Environment and Information Sciences at Yokohama National University, alongside a research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tokyo City University, and Inner Mongolia University.Testing stability across the food webEcologists have long known that having many different species keeps nature stable. However, older studies usually looked at just one group at a time, such as plants or predators. In real food chains, changes at one level quickly spread to ever...