Intraspecific plant chemodiversity at plot level has contrasting effects on arthropod functional groups

Plant chemistry mediates interactions between plants and their environment. While intraspecific chemodiversity at the individual plant level is well-studied, the effects of chemodiversity at the plant community level on arthropod interactions need more attention. We conducted a field experiment to test how intraspecific chemodiversity affects plant-arthropod interactions. We manipulated plots of Tanacetum vulgare L., varying in chemotype richness and composition, and monitored four arthropod functional groups (herbivores, flower visitors, predators, and ants) over three seasons. We hypothesized that higher plot-level chemotype richness would enhance occurrence across all studied arthropod groups but have functional group-specific effects on abundance, resulting in reduced herbivore and ant abundance and increased flower visitor and predator abundance with increased chemotype richness. Using mixed models, we found that increasing plot-level chemotype richness had a limited effect on most..., Data collection
From 2021 to 2023, we assessed herbivores, flower visitors, predators, and ants. Each year, herbivore communities were monitored by counting individual aphids on the plants from their first appearance until nearly none were found. Although the focus was on aphids, other herbivores were scarce. Therefore, the generalization to herbivores here reflects predominantly aphids. Counts were conducted 13 times from June to August 2021, eight times from May to August 2022, and three times from June to August 2023. Each count, executed within a day between 7 h and 19 h, involved a meticulous scan of each plant, which started from the tip of each stem and proceeded to the end, examining both sides of each leaf. When multiple aphid species were present on a plant, we recorded the total number of each. In cases of high aphid densities (>100), we estimated the total by counting aphids on 1 cm of stem or 1 cm2 of leaf three times in different stems and leaves for each plant, then mu..., # README for: Increasing plant chemical diversity at plot level has contrasting effects on arthropod functional groups

This README.txt file was generated on 20240613 by Lina Ojeda-Prieto

## GENERAL INFORMATION

Raw data used for the following paper:
Ojeda-Prieto et al. (2025). *Increasing plant chemical diversity at plot level has contrasting effects on arthropod functional groups*

**Author Information**

**Investigator Contact Information**\
Name: Lina Ojeda-Prieto\
Institution: Technical University of Munich\
Address: Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz Platz 2. Freising, Germany\
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]); [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Date of data collection: 2021, 2022 ,and 2023\
Geographic location of data collection: Jena, Germany\
Data collected by Lina Ojeda-Prieto and Elicer L. Moreno

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## DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR:

### 1._Herbivores_2021.csv

A. Number of variables: 28\
B. Number of cases/rows: 6552

C. Variable Li...,