Community biomass is driven by dominants and their characteristics – The insight from a field biodiversity experiment with realistic species loss scenario

Lisner, Aleš; Konečná, Marie; Blažek, Petr; Lepš, Jan

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.14029

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…More such experiments that manipulate biodiversity under realistic settings of community assembly and ecosystem management are needed if we are to gain robust insights in the transferability of BEF relationships from classical experiments to 'real-world' ecosystems (e.g. Lisner et al, 2023). This will help us identify the situations in which the protection and restoration of biodiversity has its greatest benefits and will identify the circumstances in which functional or more traditional arguments for conservation and restoration are best applied.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…species with high SLA) from the local species pool were already present. According to the mass ratio hypothesis especially dominant species are of key importance for ecosystem functioning, while the directed loss of subordinate species was shown to not matter for grassland productivity (Lisner et al, 2023). Stabilizing effects of newly established low‐SLA species on ecosystem functioning, however, may become visible in the long term through the buffering of extreme events such as exceptional droughts (Craven et al, 2018; Tilman & Downing, 1994).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the transferability of findings from controlled experiments to managed real-world grassland ecosystems, remains challenging. We detail three reasons for this below: First, BEF experiments are criticized for representing species loss as a random process (Lepš, 2004;Wardle, 2016), while in real-world-communities species loss or gain is non-random and species with certain functional traits are more likely to go extinct or increase in abundance (Lisner et al, 2023;Pywell et al, 2003;Saar et al, 2012). Both simulations and experiments underpin this criticism, showing that productivity is largely unaffected by species loss if the least competitive and least productive species are most extinction prone (Gross & Cardinale, 2005;Smith & Knapp, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing plant species richness by seeding has marginal effects on ecosystem functioning in agricultural grasslands

et al. 2023

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Experimental evidence shows that grassland plant diversity enhances ecosystem functioning. Yet, the transfer of results from controlled biodiversity experiments to naturally assembled ‘real world’ ecosystems remains challenging due to environmental variation among sites, confounding biodiversity ecosystem functioning relations in observational studies. To bridge the gap between classical biodiversity‐ecosystem functioning experiments and observational studies of naturally assembled and managed ecosystems, we created regionally replicated, within‐site gradients of species richness by seeding across agricultural grasslands differing in land‐use intensity (LUI) and abiotic site conditions. Within each of 73 grassland sites, we established a full‐factorial experiment with high‐diversity seeding and topsoil disturbance and measured 12 ecosystem functions related to productivity, and carbon and nutrient cycling after 4 years. We then analysed the effects of plant diversity (seeded richness as well as realized richness), functional community composition, land use and abiotic conditions on the ecosystem functions within (local scale) as well as among grassland sites (landscape scale). Despite the successful creation of a within‐site gradient in plant diversity (average increase in species richness in seeding treatments by 10%–35%), we found that only one to two of the 12 ecosystem functions responded to realized species richness, resulting in more closed nitrogen cycles in more diverse plant communities. Similar results were found when analysing the effect of the seeding treatment instead of realized species richness. Among sites, ecosystem functioning was mostly driven by environmental conditions and LUI. Also here, the only functions related to plant species richness were those associated with a more closed nitrogen cycle under increased diversity. The minor effects of species enrichment we found suggest that the functionally‐relevant niche space is largely saturated in naturally assembled grasslands, and that competitive, high‐functioning species are already present. Synthesis: While nature conservation and cultural ecosystem services can certainly benefit from plant species enrichment, our study indicates that restoration of plant diversity in naturally assembled communities may deliver only relatively weak increases in ecosystem functioning, such as a more closed nitrogen cycle, within the extensively to moderate intensively managed agricultural grasslands of our study.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing plant species richness by seeding has marginal effects on ecosystem functioning in agricultural grasslands

et al. 2023

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“…Alternatively, selection effects may also become stronger over time to steepen the relationship. However, there is mounting evidence that complementarity, rather than selection, is driving the diversity–ecosystem functioning relationship (Cardinale et al, 2007; Huang et al, 2018; Loreau & Hector, 2001; Reich et al, 2012; Wagg et al, 2022; but see Genung et al, 2020; Lisner et al, 2022). Accordingly, we focussed on how complementarity among plants and animals can change the ecosystem functioning relationship.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Niche complementarity among plants and animals can alter the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship

Amyntas,

Berti,

Gauzens

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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Species‐rich communities exhibit higher levels of ecosystem functioning compared with species‐poor ones, and this positive relationship strengthens over time. One proposed explanation for this phenomenon is the reduction of niche overlap among plants or animals, which corresponds to increased complementarity and reduced competition. In order to examine the potential of increased complementarity among plants or animals to strengthen the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functions, we integrated models of bio‐energetic population dynamics and food‐web assembly. Through the simulation of various scenarios of plant and animal complementarity change, we sought to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the observed increases in (1) primary productivity, (2) control of herbivores by predators and (3) reduction of herbivore pressure on plants in species‐rich communities. Our findings reveal that increased niche complementarity of plants can steepen the diversity–function relationships if it does not increase their intraspecific competition, while increasing complementarity among animals during community assembly can also have a positive effect but with considerable variability. The study highlights the importance of trait variation both among and within species and the interplay between intra‐ and interspecific competition strength in shaping the functioning of ecosystems over time. These results offer insights into the mechanisms underpinning the diversity–functioning relationship and have practical implications for ecosystem management and conservation efforts. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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“…To address our second question about resident diversity, we examined one response variable: resident effective species richness (following Lisner et al, 2023; Tilman et al, 2001). Resident effective species richness is defined as the exponential of the Shannon diversity index,

H^{'} = - \sum_{i = 1}^{S} p_{i} \ln p_{i}

, where p i is the proportional cover of the i th resident (non‐sown) species and s is the total number of resident species in each plot.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher plant colonisation and lower resident diversity in grasslands more recently abandoned from agriculture

Catford,

Shepherd,

Tennant

et al. 2023

Journal of Ecology

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Rates of species colonisation and extirpation are increasing in plant communities world‐wide. Colonisation could potentially help compensate for, or compound, resident diversity loss that results from global environmental change. We use a multifactorial seed addition grassland experiment to examine relationships between plant colonisation, resident species diversity and key community assembly factors over 3 years. By manipulating colonist seed rate, imposing disturbance and examining abundance and diversity impacts of 14 formerly absent sown colonists in communities that varied in successional stage and time since agricultural abandonment, we were able to disentangle effects of global change factors (species introduction, novel disturbance and land use change) that are usually confounded. Evidence suggested that cover abundance of sown colonists was most strongly influenced by successional stage of recipient communities, though number of growing seasons was also important for the group of seven colonists with resource conservative ‘slow’ life history traits. Colonist type, seed rate and disturbance had weaker relationships with colonist cover. Factors affecting sown colonist cover were highly conditional. A negative relationship between plot‐level disturbance and colonist cover in early successional communities meant that, despite a positive relationship in late succession, colonisation was negatively related to disturbance overall, defying theoretical expectations. Non‐sown resident diversity was negatively related to colonist cover and positively related to successional stage. Resource acquisitive colonists with ‘fast’ life history traits appeared to limit cover of ‘slow colonists’ when the two groups were sown together, likely reflecting niche pre‐emption. Communities at earlier stages of succession had lower resident diversity and experienced higher levels of colonisation than communities at later stages of succession. Elevated colonisation and lower resident diversity both appeared to be symptoms of human‐induced land use change. However, results suggested that resource competition from plant colonists may also limit resident diversity in grasslands abandoned from agriculture more recently. Synthesis. Our findings point to the importance of resource availability and competition on plant colonisation and colonist impacts on residents. Although colonisation is potentially a source of biodiversity in the short term, our results suggest that plant colonists that reach high abundance may be a further threat to resident plant diversity in secondary grasslands recovering from a recent history of agriculture.

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Community biomass is driven by dominants and their characteristics – The insight from a field biodiversity experiment with realistic species loss scenario

Cited by 20 publications

References 102 publications

Increasing plant species richness by seeding has marginal effects on ecosystem functioning in agricultural grasslands

Increasing plant species richness by seeding has marginal effects on ecosystem functioning in agricultural grasslands

Niche complementarity among plants and animals can alter the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship

Higher plant colonisation and lower resident diversity in grasslands more recently abandoned from agriculture

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