Low multifunctional redundancy of soil fungal diversity at multiple scales

Abstract

Theory suggests that biodiversity might help sustain multiple ecosystem functions. To evaluate possible biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships in a natural setting, we considered different spatial scales of diversity metrics for soil fungi in the northern forests of Japan. We found that multifunctionality increased with increasing local species richness, suggesting a limited degree of multifunctional redundancy. This diversity-multifunctionality relationship was independent of the compositional uniqueness of each community. However, we still found the importance of community composition, because there was a positive correlation between community dissimilarity and multifunctional dissimilarity across the landscape. This result suggests that functional redundancy can further decrease when spatial variations in identities of both species and functions are simultaneously considered at larger spatial scales. We speculate that different scales of diversity could provide multiple levels of insurance against the loss of functioning if high-levels of local species diversity and compositional variation across locations are both maintained. Alternatively, making species assemblages depauperate may result in the loss of multifunctionality.

Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services

“…Hence, at local scales, promoting certain tree communities may maximise some, but not all, ecosystem services of interest. As a result, forest ecosystem multifunctionality generally increases with both tree (Gamfeldt et al 2013;van der Plas et al 2016a;Ratcliffe et al 2017) and fungal (Mori et al 2016) species diversity, although it is almost impossible to maximise all desired ecosystem services and functions underpinning them at local scales . Therefore, recent studies have investigated whether larger-scale biodiversity, caused by a high spatial turnover in species composition (i.e.…”

“…high betadiversity) can promote ecosystem multifunctionality at the landscape scale. This has turned out to be the case, as a high beta-diversity ensures that different localities complement each other in the ecosystem functions and services they provide (Mori et al 2016;van der Plas et al 2016b).…”

Biodiversity and ecosystem services in forest ecosystems: a research agenda for applied forest ecology

“…Knowledge of scaling effects of biodiversity on ecosystem function is still largely limited (Mori et al . ), and thus, an important frontier in BEF studies is tree diversity experiments.…”

Deer herbivory affects the functional diversity of forest floor plants via changes in competition‐mediated assembly rules

“…This study was conducted in Shiretoko National Park, which is located in northeastern Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan (Mori et al 2016a), and is registered as a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Natural Heritage Site because of its high biodiversity. The mean annual temperature and precipitation at the study site between 2004 and 2014 were 6.5°C and 1271 mm, respectively (http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/index.php).…”