Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

What is Biodiversity?01:19

What is Biodiversity?

27.7K
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.
27.7K
Distribution and Dispersion00:54

Distribution and Dispersion

22.2K
To understand intra-specific interactions in populations, scientists measure the spatial arrangement of species individuals. This geographic arrangement is known as the species distribution or dispersion. Highly territorial species exhibit a uniform distribution pattern, in which individuals are spaced at relatively equal distances from one another. Species that are highly tied to particular resources, such as food or shelter, tend to concentrate around those resources, and thus exhibit a...
22.2K
Ecological Niches02:02

Ecological Niches

24.1K
All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.
24.1K
Symbiosis00:58

Symbiosis

29.6K
Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...
29.6K
Speciation Rates01:07

Speciation Rates

21.3K
Overview
21.3K
Diversity of Protists II01:27

Diversity of Protists II

79
Alveolates are a group of organisms recognized by the presence of alveoli, which are cytoplasmic sacs located beneath the cell membrane. While their function remains uncertain, alveoli may help regulate water balance by controlling how much water enters and leaves the cell. In dinoflagellates, these structures may serve as armor plates. There are three major types of alveolates: ciliates, which move using cilia; dinoflagellates, which use flagella for movement; and apicomplexans, which are...
79

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Plant diversity within communities, not among them, stabilizes grassland productivity across spatial scales.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Microplastics alter the functioning of marine microbial ecosystems.

Ecology and evolution·2024
Same author

Multi-habitat landscapes are more diverse and stable with improved function.

Nature·2024
Same author

Ecological network complexity scales with area.

Nature ecology & evolution·2022
Same author

The long-term restoration of ecosystem complexity.

Nature ecology & evolution·2020
Same author

The stability of multitrophic communities under habitat loss.

Nature communications·2019

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 11, 2025

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
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

1.1K

Variation in diversity-function relationships can be explained by species interactions.

Daniel Montoya1,2

  • 1Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Leioa, Spain.

The Journal of Animal Ecology
|February 8, 2023
PubMed
Summary

Biodiversity loss can increase ecosystem function variability, making functions unpredictable. Trophic interactions, driven by bottom-up and top-down controls, explain this pattern along species richness gradients.

Keywords:
biodiversityconsumer:resource ratioecosystem functioningstabilitytrophic interactions

More Related Videos

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
08:16

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

18.9K
Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
08:03

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations

Published on: December 7, 2021

2.3K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Aug 11, 2025

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
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

1.1K
Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
08:16

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

18.9K
Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
08:03

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations

Published on: December 7, 2021

2.3K

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Ecosystem Science
  • Biodiversity Research

Background:

  • Consensus exists that ecosystem functions generally increase with species diversity.
  • However, significant variability in ecosystem function (VEF) is observed in systems with similar diversity levels, a phenomenon not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the drivers of variability in ecosystem function (VEF) in relation to species diversity.
  • To understand how trophic interactions influence the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Main Methods:

  • Integration of empirical aquatic food webs with a multitrophic model.
  • Analysis of taxa composition and trophic level changes along species richness gradients.
  • Validation using an independent food web dataset from the Gulf of Riga.

Main Results:

  • Variability in ecosystem function (VEF) exhibits a hump-shaped pattern along the species richness gradient.
  • This pattern is linked to shifts in taxa composition and dominance across trophic levels.
  • Both bottom-up and top-down controls influence VEF dependence on species diversity.

Conclusions:

  • Biodiversity loss may decrease mean ecosystem functioning and increase function unpredictability.
  • Trophic interactions play a crucial role in amplifying ecosystem function variability.
  • Understanding these dynamics is key to predicting ecosystem responses to biodiversity changes.