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Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning respond unimodally to environmental stress
Jan M Baert1,2,3, Nico Eisenhauer4,5, Colin R Janssen1
1Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Applied Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Ecology Letters
|June 6, 2018
Summary
Biodiversity
Area of Science:
- Ecology and environmental science.
- Investigating the intricate links between biological diversity and ecosystem functions.
Background:
- Understanding biodiversity's impact on ecosystem functioning (EF) is crucial for predicting consequences of biodiversity loss.
- Environmental conditions significantly influence biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships, a complexity not fully understood.
- Existing research indicates variability in BEF relationships due to environmental factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how environmental stress gradients alter the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF).
- To explore the ecological mechanisms driving these BEF relationship changes under varying stress levels.
- To validate model predictions using a global dataset of biodiversity experiments.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a game-theoretic community model to predict BEF slope responses along environmental stress gradients.
- Analyzed a global dataset comprising 44 experiments that manipulated both biodiversity and environmental conditions.
- Examined how stress impacts species interactions and subsequently influences BEF relationships.
Main Results:
- Confirmed that the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning is often greatest at intermediate environmental stress levels.
- Demonstrated that the specific mechanisms underlying BEF relationships vary depending on how environmental stress affects species interactions.
- Observed that the shape of the BEF slope response to stress is not uniform across all ecological contexts.
Conclusions:
- Environmental stress gradients can lead to unimodal responses in the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationship.
- Changes in species interactions under stress are key mediators of BEF responses.
- Anticipate that escalating global environmental changes may intensify the impacts of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning.
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