Title |
Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity
|
---|---|
Published in |
Ecology Letters, February 2013
|
DOI | 10.1111/ele.12088 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Claire de Mazancourt, Forest Isbell, Allen Larocque, Frank Berendse, Enrica De Luca, James B. Grace, Bart Haegeman, H. Wayne Polley, Christiane Roscher, Bernhard Schmid, David Tilman, Jasper van Ruijven, Alexandra Weigelt, Brian J. Wilsey, Michel Loreau |
Abstract |
As biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, an important current scientific challenge is to understand and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss. Here, we develop a theory that predicts the temporal variability of community biomass from the properties of individual component species in monoculture. Our theory shows that biodiversity stabilises ecosystems through three main mechanisms: (1) asynchrony in species' responses to environmental fluctuations, (2) reduced demographic stochasticity due to overyielding in species mixtures and (3) reduced observation error (including spatial and sampling variability). Parameterised with empirical data from four long-term grassland biodiversity experiments, our prediction explained 22-75% of the observed variability, and captured much of the effect of species richness. Richness stabilised communities mainly by increasing community biomass and reducing the strength of demographic stochasticity. Our approach calls for a re-evaluation of the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem stability. |
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Geographical breakdown
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United States | 3 | 23% |
Mexico | 2 | 15% |
Sweden | 2 | 15% |
Spain | 1 | 8% |
Chile | 1 | 8% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 8% |
Unknown | 3 | 23% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 8 | 62% |
Scientists | 4 | 31% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 8% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Brazil | 7 | <1% |
Switzerland | 6 | <1% |
United States | 6 | <1% |
Germany | 4 | <1% |
France | 3 | <1% |
Canada | 3 | <1% |
Spain | 3 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 2 | <1% |
Finland | 2 | <1% |
Other | 14 | 2% |
Unknown | 659 | 93% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 171 | 24% |
Researcher | 145 | 20% |
Student > Master | 113 | 16% |
Student > Bachelor | 43 | 6% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 38 | 5% |
Other | 127 | 18% |
Unknown | 72 | 10% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 312 | 44% |
Environmental Science | 219 | 31% |
Earth and Planetary Sciences | 25 | 4% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 11 | 2% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 5 | <1% |
Other | 31 | 4% |
Unknown | 106 | 15% |