Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Symbiosis

Symbiosis

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...

What is Biodiversity?

What is Biodiversity?

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.

Threats to Biodiversity

Threats to Biodiversity

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...

Biodiversity and Human Values

Biodiversity and Human Values

Human civilization relies on biodiversity in many ways. Sudden changes in species biodiversity result in environmental changes that can modify weather patterns and therefore human civilizations.

Ecological Niches

Ecological Niches

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.

Light Acquisition

Light Acquisition

In order to produce glucose, plants need to capture sufficient light energy. Many modern plants have evolved leaves specialized for light acquisition. Leaves can be only millimeters in width or tens of meters wide, depending on the environment. Due to competition for sunlight, evolution has driven the evolution of increasingly larger leaves and taller plants, to avoid shading by their neighbors with contaminant elaboration of root architecture and mechanisms to transport water and nutrients.

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Scaling biodiversity-stability relationships from populations to meta-communities across trophic levels.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Multitrophic interaction networks mediate biodiversity effects on ecosystem multifunctionality.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Neighbourhood Diversity Effects on Tree Growth Shift Over Time in a Long-Term Forest Biodiversity Experiment.

Ecology letters·2026

Same author

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

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

Habitat-specific trends in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in European plant communities over a century.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Tree diversity-soil organic carbon relationships strengthen under colder and more arid conditions.

The New phytologist·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 16, 2026

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

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

Published on: March 21, 2025

Forest biodiversity increases productivity via complementarity from greater canopy structural complexity.

Xianglu Deng^1,2, Bernhard Schmid³, Helge Bruelheide^4,5

¹State Key Laboratory of Forage Breeding-by-Design and Utilization, Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|October 1, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Increased canopy structural complexity explains how tree diversity boosts forest productivity and carbon storage. Species complementarity is key, strengthening over time, highlighting the need for diverse forests with complex structures.

Keywords:

UAV-borne LiDAR biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF)canopy structural complexity complementarity effects forest aboveground biomass

More Related Videos

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

Published on: October 20, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 16, 2026

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

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

Published on: March 21, 2025

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

Published on: October 20, 2019

Area of Science:

Forestry science
Ecology
Remote sensing

Background:

Tree crown structure influences light interception, forest productivity, and carbon storage.
The role of canopy structure in mediating the effects of tree diversity on forest productivity is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how canopy structure is affected by tree diversity.
To determine if canopy structure mediates the relationship between tree diversity and forest productivity.
To identify the mechanisms driving diversity-enhanced productivity in forests.

Main Methods:

Utilized 4-year consecutive unmanned aerial vehicle-borne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data.
Collected ground-based tree growth measurements from 482 plots and 38,088 trees.
Analyzed data from a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment in southeast China (11-15 years post-planting).

Main Results:

Increased canopy structural complexity was found to consistently explain the positive effects of tree diversity on forest productivity.
Species complementarity was identified as the primary mediator of diversity-enhanced productivity.
The positive effects of species complementarity on productivity were observed to strengthen over time.

Conclusions:

Establishing multispecies forest communities with complex canopy structures is crucial.
Complex canopy structure maximizes forest productivity and carbon sequestration.
Species complementarity plays a vital, time-dependent role in driving forest ecosystem functions.