Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 16, 2026
09:23
JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
Published on: March 21, 2025
2.0K
Consistent effects of biodiversity loss on multifunctionality across contrasting ecosystems
Nicolas Fanin1,2, Michael J Gundale3, Mark Farrell4
1Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden. nicolas.fanin@inra.fr.
Nature Ecology & Evolution
|December 20, 2017
Summary
Biodiversity loss impacts ecosystem functions, but its effect on multifunctionality is consistent across ecosystems. Understanding species roles is key for managing ecosystem services.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Biodiversity loss threatens ecosystem functioning and services.
- Predicting impacts on ecosystem multifunctionality is crucial but varies across ecosystems.
- Understanding context-dependency is vital for conservation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how plant and fungal diversity loss affects ecosystem functions and multifunctionality across environmental gradients.
- To determine if biodiversity effects on multifunctionality are consistent across different ecosystems.
- To identify factors influencing biodiversity's impact on ecosystem functioning.
Main Methods:
- Conducted two 19-year plant diversity manipulation experiments.
- Established experiments across strong environmental gradients.
- Analyzed effects of biodiversity loss on individual functions and multifunctionality.
Main Results:
- Biodiversity loss effects on individual functions differed among ecosystems.
- Consequences of biodiversity loss for multifunctionality were relatively invariant.
- Context-dependency of biodiversity effects on individual functions could mask overall multifunctionality patterns.
Conclusions:
- While multifunctionality may appear stable, underlying biodiversity impacts can differ significantly between ecosystems.
- Understanding species contributions and interactions (complementarity, competition) is critical for effective management.
- Management strategies must consider ecosystem-specific contexts to maintain multifunctionality and ecosystem services.
Related Concept Videos
01:19What is Biodiversity?
34.1K
Biodiversity describes the variety of living things at multiple organizational levels: genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. Species diversity includes all branches of the evolutionary tree from single-celled prokaryotic organisms, bacteria, and archaea, to the eukaryotic kingdoms: plants; animals; fungi; and protists. To date, there have been about 1.75 million species identified, and new species are discovered every week.
34.1K
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
27.2K
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
27.2K
02:26Ecological Disturbance
21.2K
An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.
21.2K
02:31Habitat Fragmentation
21.5K
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
21.5K
01:57What is Conservation Biology?
24.5K
Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the human population. Humans require properly functioning ecosystems to maintain our supply of natural resources, including food, medicines, and building materials.
24.5K
01:39Keystone Species
25.1K
Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...
25.1K