Topic
Ecosystem
About: Ecosystem is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25460 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1291375 citations. The topic is also known as: ecological system & Ecosystem.
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TL;DR: Evidence from a long-term field manipulation of plant diversity that soil microbial communities, and the key ecosystem processes that they mediate, are significantly altered by plant species richness is provided.
Abstract: A current debate in ecology centers on the extent to which ecosystem function depends on biodiversity. Here, we provide evidence from a long-term field manipulation of plant diversity that soil microbial communities, and the key ecosystem processes that they mediate, are significantly altered by plant species richness. After seven years of plant growth, we determined the composition and function of soil microbial communities beneath experimental plant diversity treatments containing 1-16 species. Microbial community bio- mass, respiration, and fungal abundance significantly increased with greater plant diversity, as did N mineralization rates. However, changes in microbial community biomass, activity, and composition largely resulted from the higher levels of plant production associated with greater diversity, rather than from plant diversity per se. Nonetheless, greater plant pro- duction could not explain more rapid N mineralization, indicating that plant diversity affected this microbial process, which controls rates of ecosystem N cycling. Greater N availability probably contributed to the positive relationship between plant diversity and productivity in the N-limited soils of our experiment, suggesting that plant-microbe in- teractions in soil are an integral component of plant diversity's influence on ecosystem
1,130 citations
TL;DR: Much of the recent progress in ecosystem ecology can be traced to studies which have examined the responses of ecosystems to disturbance, which have documented the reestablishment of biotic regulation of water and nutrient cycling during secondary succession.
Abstract: Much of the recent progress in ecosystem ecology can be traced to studies which have examined the responses of ecosystems to disturbance (Odum 1969). For example, early studies of forest clear-felling (cf. Hesselman 1917, in Stalfelt (1960) demonstrated that soil nutrient availability is usually enhanced in harvested sites. More recently, studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (Likens et al. 1970, Bormann and Likens 1979), in Sweden (Tamm et al. 1974, Wiklander 1981), and elsewhere documented that forest cutting alters watershed-level hydrology and nutrient losses; longer-term measurements have documented the reestablishment of biotic regulation of water and nutrient cycling during secondary succession (Bormann and Likens 1979).
1,128 citations
TL;DR: The findings provide empirical evidence that any loss in microbial diversity will likely reduce multifunctionality, negatively impacting the provision of services such as climate regulation, soil fertility and food and fibre production by terrestrial ecosystems.
Abstract: Despite the importance of microbial communities for ecosystem services and human welfare, the relationship between microbial diversity and multiple ecosystem functions and services (that is, multifunctionality) at the global scale has yet to be evaluated. Here we use two independent, large-scale databases with contrasting geographic coverage (from 78 global drylands and from 179 locations across Scotland, respectively), and report that soil microbial diversity positively relates to multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems. The direct positive effects of microbial diversity were maintained even when accounting simultaneously for multiple multifunctionality drivers (climate, soil abiotic factors and spatial predictors). Our findings provide empirical evidence that any loss in microbial diversity will likely reduce multifunctionality, negatively impacting the provision of services such as climate regulation, soil fertility and food and fibre production by terrestrial ecosystems.
1,119 citations
TL;DR: The findings indicate that losses of soil carbon in England and Wales—and by inference in other temperate regions—are likely to have been offsetting absorption of carbon by terrestrial sinks, suggesting a link to climate change.
Abstract: More than twice as much carbon is held in soils as in vegetation or the atmosphere, and changes in soil carbon content can have a large effect on the global carbon budget. The possibility that climate change is being reinforced by increased carbon dioxide emissions from soils owing to rising temperature is the subject of a continuing debate. But evidence for the suggested feedback mechanism has to date come solely from small-scale laboratory and field experiments and modelling studies. Here we use data from the National Soil Inventory of England and Wales obtained between 1978 and 2003 to show that carbon was lost from soils across England and Wales over the survey period at a mean rate of 0.6% yr(-1) (relative to the existing soil carbon content). We find that the relative rate of carbon loss increased with soil carbon content and was more than 2% yr(-1) in soils with carbon contents greater than 100 g kg(-1). The relationship between rate of carbon loss and carbon content is irrespective of land use, suggesting a link to climate change. Our findings indicate that losses of soil carbon in England and Wales--and by inference in other temperate regions-are likely to have been offsetting absorption of carbon by terrestrial sinks.
1,116 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that diversity is also functionally important, both because it increases the probability of including species that have strong ecosystem effects and because it can increase the efficiency of resource use.
Abstract: Changes in the abundance of species — especially those that influence water and nutrient dynamics, trophic interactions, or disturbance regime — affect the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Diversity is also functionally important, both because it increases the probability of including species that have strong ecosystem effects and because it can increase the efficiency of resource use. Differences in environmental sensitivity among functionally similar species give stability to ecosystem processes, whereas differences in sensitivity among functionally different species make ecosystems more vulnerable to change. Current global environmental changes that affect species composition and diversity are therefore profoundly altering the functioning of the biosphere.
1,110 citations