Consumer diversity across kingdoms supports multiple functions in a coastal ecosystem

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Environmental Science
• Biodiversity Research

Background:

• Global biodiversity loss threatens vital ecosystem services.
• Previous studies often focused on single ecosystem functions or similar species.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally investigate how the extinction of diverse consumers impacts multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously in a salt marsh.
• To understand the role of functional and phylogenetic diversity in maintaining ecosystem functioning.

Main Methods:

• Conducted field experiments in a salt marsh ecosystem.
• Examined the extinction impacts of phylogenetically diverse consumers (spanning Animalia and Fungi).
• Measured simultaneous ecosystem processes including productivity, decomposition, and infiltration.

Main Results:

• A diverse consumer assemblage significantly enhanced multiple, disparate ecosystem functions.
• Extreme functional and phylogenetic differences among consumers were key to this enhancement.
• Each consumer affected distinct functions, and each function was influenced by a limited number of consumers.

Conclusions:

• Maximizing multiple ecosystem functions requires not only species richness but also the presence of species with diverse ecologies and biology.
• Incorporating both micro- and macro-consumers is crucial for predicting biodiversity impacts on ecosystem functioning.