Animal diversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic food webs.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Ecosystem Dynamics
• Biodiversity Research

Background:

• Global and local species diversity changes impact ecosystem functioning.
• The consequences of animal species loss on ecosystem processes remain complex and debated.
• High animal diversity can increase herbivore complementarity but also intra-guild predation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To understand how animal species diversity influences ecosystem functioning.
• To reconcile conflicting views on the impact of species loss on primary productivity.
• To investigate the role of body-mass constraints in ecological communities.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a dynamic food-web model incorporating body-mass constraints.
• Simulated ecosystem functions across 20,000 distinct communities with varying animal diversity.
• Analyzed the interplay between species diversity, biomass accumulation, and plant exploitation.

Main Results:

• Diverse animal communities accumulate more biomass and are more exploitative on plants.
• Increased intra-guild predation in diverse communities does not reduce plant biomass.
• Larger, energetically efficient plant and animal species in diverse communities explain these outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Community body-size structure plasticity reconciles the debate on animal species loss impacts.
• Diverse animal communities enhance ecosystem biomass and resource exploitation.
• The size structure of species, not just diversity, is crucial for ecosystem functioning.