Table 2.
Summary of the response of plant and invertebrate richness, abundance, and composition and of individual invertebrate orders to the two axes of experimental meadow treatments: diversity (three levels) and height (three levels)
| Response variable | Direction of effect | |
|---|---|---|
| Diversity | Height | |
| Plants | ||
| All plants richness | ↑, L < M/H | ∩, M > H |
| All plants composition | yes, NA | yes, NA |
| Not‐sown plants richness | ↓, H < L/M | |
| Not‐sown plants cover | ↓, L > H | |
| Not‐sown plants composition | yes†, NA | yes†, NA |
| Invertebrates, Summer | ||
| Order richness | ↑, H > L/M | |
| Order composition | yes, NA | |
| Coleoptera richness | ↑, H > L/M | |
| Coleoptera composition | ||
| Invertebrate abundance | ↑, H > L | |
| Invertebrate biomass | ↑, L < M/H | |
| Invertebrate orders, Summer | ||
| Acari | ||
| Araneae | ↑, H > L | |
| Coleoptera | ↑, H > L | ↑, L < M/H |
| Collembola | ||
| Diptera | ↑, H > L | ↑, H > L/M |
| Hemiptera | ↓, L > H | ↑, L < M/H |
| Hymenoptera | ↑, H > L | |
| Thysanoptera | ↑, H > L | |
| Invertebrates, Autumn | ||
| Order richness | ↑, L < M/H | |
| Order composition | yes, NA | |
| Coleoptera richness | ||
| Coleoptera composition | yes, NA | |
| Invertebrate abundance | ↓, L > H | |
| Invertebrate biomass | ↑, L < M/H | |
| Invertebrate orders, Autumn | ||
| Acari | ||
| Araneae | ||
| Coleoptera | ↑, L < M/H | |
| Collembola | ||
| Diptera | ||
| Hemiptera | ↓, L > M/H | ∩, M > L/H |
| Hymenoptera | ∩, M > L/H | |
| Psocodea | ↑, H > M > L | |
| Thysanoptera | ↓, L > M/H | ↑, H > L |
| Invertebrates, Winter | ||
| Order richness | ↑, H > L | |
| Invertebrate abundance | ↑, H > L | |
Results summarize linear model outputs (full results in Tables 1 and 3) and adonis results (full results in Appendix S1: Table S5). Here, significant effects for compositional change are indicated by “yes” and the direction effects are not applicable (NA). Significant effects for diversity and abundance measures are designated with a symbol indicating the direction of effect and text with detail of which treatments were higher or lower. An up arrow indicates the response variable increases with increasing meadow height/diversity. A down arrow indicates the response variable decreases with increasing meadow height/diversity. A ∩ symbol indicates that the response variable was highest in the medium height/diversity treatments. Non‐significant responses are left blank and indicate no detectable response to the treatment.
Note that data did not meet the adonis test assumptions of homogeneity of variance (tested using betadisper).