Greater than the sum of the parts: how the species composition in different forest strata influence ecosystem function

Abstract

The mechanisms underpinning forest biodiversity‐ecosystem function relationships remain unresolved. Yet, in heterogeneous forests, ecosystem function of different strata could be associated with traits or evolutionary relationships differently. Here, we integrate phylogenies and traits to evaluate the effects of elevational diversity on above‐ground biomass across forest strata and spatial scales. Community‐weighted means of height and leaf phosphorous concentration and functional diversity in specific leaf area exhibited positive correlations with tree biomass, suggesting that both positive selection effects and complementarity occur. However, high shrub biomass is associated with greater dissimilarity in seed mass and multidimensional trait space, while species richness or phylogenetic diversity is the most important predictor for herbaceous biomass, indicating that species complementarity is especially important for understory function. The strength of diversity‐biomass relationships increases at larger spatial scales. We conclude that strata‐ and scale‐ dependent assessments of community structure and function are needed to fully understand how biodiversity influences ecosystem function.

Functional identity enhances aboveground productivity of a coastal saline meadow mediated by Tamarix chinensis in Laizhou Bay, China

“…nutrients, light) 36 . It was also important for the biomass production of plants 37 . The CWM of H max was correlated with the plant growth of the most abundant species, and represented one of the main drivers of biomass in grasslands and forests 25,38 .…”

Selective logging enhances ecosystem multifunctionality via increase of functional diversity in a Pinus yunnanensis forest in Southwest China

“…The simultaneous occurrence of these different ecosystem functions (EFs) is defined as ecosystem multifunctionality ('EMF') (Hector and Bagchi 2007). This concept was first proposed in the study of seagrass (Duffy et al 2003) and has been widely used in grasslands (Soliveres et al 2016;Meyer et al 2018), aquatic (Lefcheck et al 2015;Perkins et al 2015) and forest ecosystems (van der Plas et al 2016;Huang et al 2019;Luo et al 2019).…”

Thinning enhances ecosystem multifunctionality via increase of functional diversity in a Pinus yunnanensis natural secondary forest

“…Biodiversity consists of three components: taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity (Bagousse-Pinguet et al 2019;Luo et al 2019). Most studies have focused on taxonomic diversity, e.g.…”