Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning change along environmental stress gradients

Steudel, Bastian; Héctor, Andy; Friedl, Thomas; Löfke, Christian; Lorenz, Maike; Wesche, Moritz; Kessler, Michael

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01863.x

Cited by 161 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

133

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These effect sizes are close to those found in a review of 44 species diversity experiments where species mixtures produced on average 72% more biomass than monocultures 31 . It is intriguing that, similarly as in other diversity studies 32 , the benefit of increased epigenetic diversity was greatest under the most realistic environmental conditions where both pathogens and competitors were present. The results of our study are comparable to previous species or within-species diversity experiments not only in terms of effect sizes but also in terms of the shape of the diversity-productivity relationships and the underlying mechanisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Epigenetic diversity increases the productivity and stability of plant populations

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biological diversity within species can be an important driver of population and ecosystem functioning. Until now, such within-species diversity effects have been attributed to underlying variation in DNA sequence. However, within-species differences, and thus potentially functional biodiversity, can also be created by epigenetic variation. Here, we show that epigenetic diversity increases the productivity and stability of plant populations. Epigenetically diverse populations of Arabidopsis thaliana produce up to 40% more biomass than epigenetically uniform populations. The positive epigenetic diversity effects are strongest when populations are grown together with competitors and infected with pathogens, and they seem to be partly driven by complementarity among epigenotypes. Our study has two implications: first, we may need to re-evaluate previous within-species diversity studies where some effects could reflect epigenetic diversity; second, we need to incorporate epigenetics into basic ecological research, by quantifying natural epigenetic diversity and testing for its ecological consequences across many different species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Epigenetic diversity increases the productivity and stability of plant populations

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The plant diversity effects on these functions are more pronounced in stress conditions (Steudel et al, 2012) and become stronger with time (Reich et al, 2012). Through resource availability and niche differentiation, increase in plant biomass and species richness favours the accumulation of soil microbial and faunal biomass and abundance that accommodate greater number of species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree diversity and species identity effects on soil fungi, protists and animals are context dependent

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plant species richness and the presence of certain influential species (sampling effect) drive the stability and functionality of ecosystems as well as primary production and biomass of consumers. However, little is known about these floristic effects on richness and community composition of soil biota in forest habitats owing to methodological constraints. We developed a DNA metabarcoding approach to identify the major eukaryote groups directly from soil with roughly species-level resolution. Using this method, we examined the effects of tree diversity and individual tree species on soil microbial biomass and taxonomic richness of soil biota in two experimental study systems in Finland and Estonia and accounted for edaphic variables and spatial autocorrelation. Our analyses revealed that the effects of tree diversity and individual species on soil biota are largely context dependent. Multiple regression and structural equation modelling suggested that biomass, soil pH, nutrients and tree species directly affect richness of different taxonomic groups. The community composition of most soil organisms was strongly correlated due to similar response to environmental predictors rather than causal relationships. On a local scale, soil resources and tree species have stronger effect on diversity of soil biota than tree species richness per se.

show abstract

“…The effect of tolerant species was more pronounced at higher levels of species richness than lower one, indicating some type of interactions might be possible between these species. In previous studies also, the selection effect was found to be prevalent under stressful conditions where tolerant species contributed largely to the ecosystem functioning (Boles et al, 2004;Steudel et al, 2012).…”

Section: Role Of Biodiversity Under Abiotic Perturbationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, the prevalence of antagonistic interactions is the main cause behind negative relationships (Becker et al, 2012;Foster and Bell, 2012). The impacts of abiotic stress on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship of microbial systems are generally found negative (Steudel et al, 2012) or positive in some cases (Li et al, 2010). Bacterial diversity has been found to increase the community stability against both biotic and abiotic environmental perturbations .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity acts as insurance of productivity of bacterial communities under abiotic perturbations

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anthropogenic disturbances are detrimental to the functioning and stability of natural ecosystems. Critical ecosystem processes driven by microbial communities are subjected to these disturbances. Here, we examine the stabilizing role of bacterial diversity on community biomass in the presence of abiotic perturbations such as addition of heavy metals, NaCl and warming. Bacterial communities with a diversity gradient of 1-12 species were subjected to the different treatments, and community biomass (OD 600 ) was measured after 24 h. We found that initial species richness and phylogenetic structure impact the biomass of communities. Under abiotic perturbations, the presence of tolerant species in community largely contributed in community biomass production. Bacterial diversity stabilized the biomass across the treatments, and differential response of bacterial species to different perturbations was the key reason behind these effects. The results suggest that biodiversity is crucial for maintaining the stability of ecosystem functioning and acts as ecological insurance under abiotic perturbations. Biodiversity in natural ecosystems may also uphold the ecosystem functioning under anthropogenic disturbance.

show abstract

Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning change along environmental stress gradients

Cited by 161 publications

References 41 publications

Epigenetic diversity increases the productivity and stability of plant populations

Epigenetic diversity increases the productivity and stability of plant populations

Tree diversity and species identity effects on soil fungi, protists and animals are context dependent

Biodiversity acts as insurance of productivity of bacterial communities under abiotic perturbations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About