Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought

Self Cite

One contribution of 17 to a theme issue 'Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes'. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia Ecosystem eutrophication often increases domination by non-natives and causes displacement of native taxa. However, variation in environmental conditions may affect the outcome of interactions between native and non-native taxa in environments where nutrient supply is elevated. We examined the interactive effects of eutrophication, climate variability and climate average conditions on the success of native and non-native plant species using experimental nutrient manipulations replicated at 32 grassland sites on four continents. We hypothesized that effects of nutrient addition would be greatest where climate was stable and benign, owing to reduced niche partitioning. We found that the abundance of non-native species increased with nutrient addition independent of climate; however, nutrient addition increased nonnative species richness and decreased native species richness, with these effects & 2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.on May 12, 2018 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ Downloaded from dampened in warmer or wetter sites. Eutrophication also altered the time scale in which grassland invasion responded to climate, decreasing the importance of long-term climate and increasing that of annual climate. Thus, climatic conditions mediate the responses of native and non-native flora to nutrient enrichment. Our results suggest that the negative effect of nutrient addition on native abundance is decoupled from its effect on richness, and reduces the time scale of the links between climate and compositional change.

Section: Methods (A) Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate modifies response of non-native and native species richness to nutrient enrichment

Flores‐Moreno

Reich

Lind

et al. 2016

Self Cite

Section: Issue (2): Non-equilibrium Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A metastudy of this special issue integrates data from 16 grassland BEF experiments to address interactions between biodiversity and one of two essential resources (soil nutrients or water) on above-ground plant productivity [63]. The results indicate that the biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning do not interact with the resources to affect productivity [63]. Another meta-study of this special issue, an experiment replicated at 32 grassland sites on four continents, addresses how eutrophication and climate affect the invasibility of plant communities by non-native species [64].…”

Section: Issue (2): Non-equilibrium Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functimentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes

Brose

Hillebrand

2016

179

168

One contribution of 17 to a theme issue 'Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes'. The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) and its consequence for ecosystem services has predominantly been studied by controlled, short-term and small-scale experiments under standardized environmental conditions and constant community compositions. However, changes in biodiversity occur in real-world ecosystems with varying environments and a dynamic community composition. In this theme issue, we present novel research on BEF in such dynamic communities. The contributions are organized in three sections on BEF relationships in (i) multi-trophic diversity, (ii) non-equilibrium biodiversity under disturbance and varying environmental conditions, and (iii) large spatial and long temporal scales. The first section shows that multi-trophic BEF relationships often appear idiosyncratic, while accounting for species traits enables a predictive understanding. Future BEF research on complex communities needs to include ecological theory that is based on first principles of species-averaged body masses, stoichiometry and effects of environmental conditions such as temperature. The second section illustrates that disturbance and varying environments have direct as well as indirect (via changes in species richness, community composition and species' traits) effects on BEF relationships. Fluctuations in biodiversity (species richness, community composition and also trait dominance within species) can severely modify BEF relationships. The third section demonstrates that BEF at larger spatial scales is driven by different variables. While species richness per se and community biomass are most important, species identity effects and community composition are less important than at small scales. Across long temporal scales, mass extinctions represent severe changes in biodiversity with mixed effects on ecosystem functions. Together, the contributions of this theme issue identify new research frontiers and answer some open questions on BEF relationships in dynamic communities of real-world landscapes.

“…Many studies have demonstrated that high species diversity enhances ecosystem functioning both in experimental and natural assemblages ( [1][2][3][4]; reviewed in [5] this issue). However, it has been argued elsewhere that it is not the total number of species per se, but the functional properties of the most locally abundant ones (hereafter common species) that drive ecosystem functioning (mass -ratio hypothesis [6]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality

Soliveres

Manning

Prati

et al. 2016

127

One contribution of 17 to a theme issue 'Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes'. Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity-multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a landuse intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above-and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the communitylevel effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6% of the species tested. Speciesspecific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities.