The Relationship between Species Richness and Community Biomass: The Importance of Environmental Variables

Gough, Laura; Grace, James B.; Taylor, Katherine L.

doi:10.2307/3545638

Cited by 288 publications

(243 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Gough et al 1994;Grace 1999;Olde Venterink et al 2001;Laliberté et al 2014), our results are somewhat contradictory. We found slightly different effects for K and P additions on numbers of [endangered] species and on production; which is an indication that species richness not only depends on production, but at least partly on the relative availabilities of these nutrients.…”

Section: General Conclusioncontrasting

confidence: 53%

Species-rich grassland can persist under nitrogen-rich but phosphorus-limited conditions

et al. 2016

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Aim Deposition of nitrogen is assumed to cause loss of botanical diversity, probably through increased production and exclusion of less competitive species. However, if production is (co-)limited by phosphorus, acceleration of the phosphorus cycle may be responsible for the diversity loss and, where that is the case, nitrogen emission reduction may turn out to be an ineffective mitigation strategy. Here we study the feasibility of this mechanism through adding potassium and phosphorus to grassland where nitrogen limitation is absent. Methods We made vegetation relevés in a long-term agricultural fertilisation experiment where potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen were being added to grassland on drained peat where nitrogen availability was high, even in unfertilised plots. We applied a multivariate analysis to investigate the effect of additions of K, K + P and K + P + N on the species composition. Results Unfertilised plots had a very low biomass production and were rich in plant species despite their high nitrogen availability. Addition of potassium led to a strongly increased production but did not result in a reduction of species numbers. Phosphorus in addition to potassium increased production still further and decreased species numbers, most notably the number of endangered species. Conclusions Even under nitrogen rich conditions species richness may be high in grasslands where phosphorous provides a limitation to plant growth. Phosphorus limitation and phosphorus enrichment are both common in grassland, at least in north-western Europe. Part of the general decrease in species numbers that is commonly ascribed to nitrogen enrichment may therefore be due to phosphorus enrichment. If phosphorus and nitrogen are co-limiting (which is often the case) the current nitrogen emission reduction policies may be effective, but not sufficient to restore grassland diversity to its preindustrial level.

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Section: General Conclusioncontrasting

confidence: 53%

Species-rich grassland can persist under nitrogen-rich but phosphorus-limited conditions

et al. 2016

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“…The only field study showing a negative response of biomass production to increasing species richness was a study on plants in salt marshes (TREIBSEL, electronic supplementary material), where salinity and water regime, rather than nutrients, were the main drivers of diversity and biomass [36][37][38][39]. The limited ability of our model to explain variation in richness and realized productivity in salt marshes (only 8% for richness and 4% for realized productivity) seems to confirm that we did not quantify the key factors influencing this system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of balanced and imbalanced resource supply on biodiversity–functioning relationship across ecosystems

Lewandowska

Biermann

Borer

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Bien que l'on admette une relation entre la productivité (la phytomasse, la biomasse ou la production) et la diversité (ou la richesse spécifique) [4,5], on ne peut réellement l'expliquer. Le maximum de richesse spéci-fique correspond généralement à des taux intermédiaires de biomasse [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Communautés de sous-bois des peupleraies artificielles : relation entre phytomasse, richesse spécifque et perturbations

Laquerbe¹

1999

Ann. For. Sci.

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The Relationship between Species Richness and Community Biomass: The Importance of Environmental Variables

Cited by 288 publications

References 22 publications

Species-rich grassland can persist under nitrogen-rich but phosphorus-limited conditions

Species-rich grassland can persist under nitrogen-rich but phosphorus-limited conditions

The influence of balanced and imbalanced resource supply on biodiversity–functioning relationship across ecosystems

Communautés de sous-bois des peupleraies artificielles : relation entre phytomasse, richesse spécifque et perturbations

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