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Mechanistic links between coexistence, productivity, and stability in experimental grasslands.

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Multiple Community Properties Drive Ecosystem Resistance and Resilience to Extreme Climate Events Across Mesic Grasslands.

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

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Nitrogen availability and plant functional composition modify biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships.

Noémie A Pichon1,2, Seraina L Cappelli1,3, Santiago Soliveres4,5

  • 1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Ecology Letters
|January 13, 2024
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Plant diversity boosts ecosystem multifunctionality, but this effect depends on factors like species growth rates and resource availability. Understanding these contexts is key for predicting biodiversity impacts.

Keywords:
complementarityfunctional diversityfunctional traitsfungal pathogensglobal changegrasslandleaf economics spectrumplant communityspecies richnessspecific leaf area

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Environmental Science
  • Biodiversity Research

Background:

  • Biodiversity often enhances ecosystem functions simultaneously, a concept known as multifunctionality.
  • However, observed biodiversity effects vary, indicating context-dependent relationships.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how factors like species richness, functional composition, resource addition, and enemy abundance modulate the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality.
  • To understand the context dependency of biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning.

Main Methods:

  • A large-scale grassland experiment was conducted manipulating plant species richness, resource addition, functional composition (exploitative vs. conservative species), functional diversity, and enemy abundance.
  • Ten above- and belowground ecosystem functions were measured to calculate ecosystem multifunctionality.

Main Results:

  • Both species richness and functional diversity positively influenced multifunctionality, but these effects were context-dependent.
  • Species richness effects were stronger in communities with fast-growing species due to reduced functional redundancy.
  • Nitrogen enrichment and enemy presence diminished the positive impact of functional diversity on multifunctionality.

Conclusions:

  • The strength of the biodiversity-multifunctionality relationship is modulated by various environmental and community factors.
  • Shifts towards fast-growing plant communities can alter ecosystem functioning and the sensitivity of these functions to biodiversity changes.