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Biodiversity across trophic levels drives multifunctionality in highly diverse forests
Andreas Schuldt1,2, Thorsten Assmann3, Matteo Brezzi4,5
1German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzigv, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany. andreas.schuldt@idiv.de.
Nature Communications
|August 2, 2018
Summary
Biodiversity loss impacts ecosystem functions. In biodiverse forests, heterotroph and plant trait diversity, not just tree species richness, drive ecosystem multifunctionality.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Biodiversity Science
- Ecosystem Science
Background:
- Human activities cause biodiversity loss, impairing critical ecosystem functions and services.
- The impact of biodiversity change on ecosystem multifunctionality is not well understood, especially in diverse ecosystems with multiple trophic levels.
- Existing research often focuses on plant species loss, neglecting the role of other trophic levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze how biodiversity across trophic levels affects ecosystem multifunctionality in biodiverse subtropical forests.
- To identify key drivers of ecosystem functions and multifunctionality beyond plant species richness.
- To understand the cascading effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a multitrophic perspective to assess biodiversity's impact on ecosystem functions.
- Measured 22 independent indicators of nine core ecosystem functions related to energy and nutrient flow.
- Analyzed the influence of plant diversity, plant functional traits, plant composition, and heterotroph diversity on ecosystem functions.
Main Results:
- Ecosystem functions and multifunctionality were more sensitive to the diversity of heterotrophs involved in decomposition and nutrient cycling.
- Plant functional-trait diversity and composition significantly influenced ecosystem functions.
- Tree species richness had a lesser impact on ecosystem functions compared to heterotroph diversity and plant traits.
- Higher trophic-level diversity demonstrated cascading effects on lower trophic-level processes, influencing overall multifunctionality.
Conclusions:
- Multitrophic biodiversity, particularly heterotroph diversity and plant functional traits, is crucial for maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality.
- A comprehensive, multitrophic perspective is essential for understanding biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships.
- These findings are vital for sustainable ecosystem management facing non-random species loss and environmental change.
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