Productivity Is a Poor Predictor of Plant Species Richness
Peter B. Adler,Eric W. Seabloom,Elizabeth T. Borer,Helmut Hillebrand,Yann Hautier,Andy Hector,W. Stanley Harpole,Lydia R. O'Halloran,James B. Grace,T. Michael Anderson,Jonathan D. Bakker,Lori A. Biederman,Cynthia S. Brown,Yvonne M. Buckley,Laura B. Calabrese,Chengjin Chu,Elsa E. Cleland,Scott L. Collins,Kathryn L. Cottingham,Michael J. Crawley,Ellen I. Damschen,Kendi F. Davies,Nicole M. DeCrappeo,Philip A. Fay,Jennifer Firn,Paul N. Frater,Eve I. Gasarch,Daneil S. Gruner,Nicole Hagenah,Nicole Hagenah,Janneke Hille Ris Lambers,Hope C. Humphries,Virginia L. Jin,Adam D. Kay,Kevin P. Kirkman,Julia A. Klein,Johannes M. H. Knops,Kimberly J. La Pierre,John G. Lambrinos,Wei Li,Andrew S. MacDougall,Rebecca L. McCulley,Brett A. Melbourne,Charles E. Mitchell,Joslin L. Moore,John W. Morgan,Brent Mortensen,John L. Orrock,Suzanne M. Prober,David A. Pyke,Anita C. Risch,Martin Schuetz,Melinda D. Smith,Carly J. Stevens,Carly J. Stevens,Lauren L. Sullivan,Gang Wang,Peter D. Wragg,Justin P. Wright,Louie H. Yang +59 more
TLDR
This article conducted a standardized sampling in 48 herbaceous-dominated plant communities on five continents and found no clear relationship between productivity and fine-scale (meters−2) richness within sites, within regions, or across the globe.Abstract:
For more than 30 years, the relationship between net primary productivity and species richness has generated intense debate in ecology about the processes regulating local diversity. The original view, which is still widely accepted, holds that the relationship is hump-shaped, with richness first rising and then declining with increasing productivity. Although recent meta-analyses questioned the generality of hump-shaped patterns, these syntheses have been criticized for failing to account for methodological differences among studies. We addressed such concerns by conducting standardized sampling in 48 herbaceous-dominated plant communities on five continents. We found no clear relationship between productivity and fine-scale (meters−2) richness within sites, within regions, or across the globe. Ecologists should focus on fresh, mechanistic approaches to understanding the multivariate links between productivity and richness.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Plant Species Richness and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands
Fernando T. Maestre,José L. Quero,Nicholas J. Gotelli,Adrián Escudero,Victoria Ochoa,Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo,Miguel García-Gómez,Miguel García-Gómez,Matthew A. Bowker,Santiago Soliveres,Cristina Escolar,Pablo García-Palacios,Miguel Berdugo,Enrique Valencia,Beatriz Gozalo,Antonio Gallardo,Lorgio E. Aguilera,Tulio Arredondo,Julio Blones,Bertrand Boeken,Donaldo Bran,Abel Augusto Conceição,Omar Cabrera,Mohamed Chaieb,Mchich Derak,David J. Eldridge,Carlos I. Espinosa,Adriana Florentino,Juan José Gaitán,M. Gabriel Gatica,Wahida Ghiloufi,Susana Gómez-González,Julio R. Gutiérrez,Rosa M. Hernández,Xuewen Huang,Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald,Mohammad Jankju,Maria N. Miriti,Jorge Monerris,Rebecca L. Mau,Ernesto Morici,Kamal Naseri,Abelardo Ospina,Vicente Polo,Aníbal Prina,Eduardo Pucheta,David A. Ramírez-Collantes,R. L. Romão,Matthew Tighe,Cristian Torres-Díaz,James Val,José P. Veiga,Deli Wang,Eli Zaady +53 more
TL;DR: A global empirical study relating plant species richness and abiotic factors to multifunctionality in drylands, which collectively cover 41% of Earth’s land surface and support over 38% of the human population, suggests that the preservation of plant biodiversity is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in dryland.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Functions of Biological Diversity in an Age of Extinction
TL;DR: Recent advances in the young and evolving field of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are reviewed, the extent to which the field is becoming a predictive science is explored, and how the field needs to develop in order to aid worldwide efforts to achieve environmental sustainability in the face of rising rates of extinction is explored.
Supporting Online Material for Plant Species Richness and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands
Fernando T. Maestre,José L. Quero,Nicholas J. Gotelli,Adrián Escudero,Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo,Miguel García-Gómez,Matthew A. Bowker,Santiago Soliveres,Cristina Escolar,Pablo García-Palacios,Miguel Berdugo,Beatriz Gozalo,Antonio Gallardo,Lorgio E. Aguilera,Tulio Arredondo,Bertrand Boeken,Donaldo Bran,Abel A. Conceição,Omar Cabrera,Mchich Derak,David J. Eldridge,Carlos I. Espinosa,Adriana Florentino,M. Gabriel Gatica,Wahida Ghiloufi,Susana Gómez-González,Julio R. Gutiérrez,Rosa Mary Hernández,Xuewen Huang,Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald,Mohammad Jankju,Maria N. Miriti,Jorge Monerris,Rebecca L. Mau,Ernesto Morici,Kamal Naseri,Vicente Polo,Aníbal Prina,Eduardo Pucheta,David A. Ramírez-Collantes,R. L. Romão,Matthew Tighe,Cristian Torres-Díaz,James Val,José P. Veiga,Eli Zaady +45 more
TL;DR: Fernando T. Maestre,* Jose L. Quero, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Adrian Escudero, Victoria Ochoa, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Miguel Garcia-Gomez, Matthew A. Eldridge, Carlos I. Espinosa, Adriana Florentino, Juan Gaitan, M. Gabriel Gatica, Wahida Ghiloufi, Susana Gomez-Gonzalez, Julio R. Gutierrez, Rosa M. Veiga, Deli Wang, Eli Zaady
Journal ArticleDOI
Forest productivity increases with evenness, species richness and trait variation: a global meta‐analysis
TL;DR: This analysis is the first to demonstrate the critical role of species evenness, richness and the importance of contrasting traits in defining net diversity effects in forest polycultures and should motivate future studies to link richness,Evenness, contrasting traits and life-history stage to the mechanisms that are expected to produce positive net biodiversity effects.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nutrient enrichment, biodiversity loss, and consequent declines in ecosystem productivity
TL;DR: The hypothesis that the long-term impacts of anthropogenic drivers of environmental change on ecosystem functioning can strongly depend on how such drivers gradually decrease biodiversity and restructure communities is supported.
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