Climate change alters slug abundance but not herbivory in a temperate grassland

We further hypothesized that increased heat, increased precipitation, and their combina- tion would allow persistence of slugs during times of year when temperature or moisture were not conducive to slug survival. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that slugs persisted in +heat treatments during the winter and in +precipitation treatments during the summer. Fig 4. Average (± S.E.) number of slugs trapped in heated vs. non-heated plots (a) or in added precipitation vs. ambient precipitation plots (b). Points in time where significant climate treatment effects were observed are indicated by asterisks. Fescue growing season was March 15-October 15 with harvests occurring mid-May, early August, and mid-October. Seasons are defined as: winter—December-February, spring—March-May, summer—June-August, and fall—September-November. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283128.g004 PLOS ONE Slug herbivory & climate change PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283128 March 14, 2023 11 / 17