Article
Biology
Patrick L. Thompson, Sonia Kefi, Yuval R. Zelnik, Laura E. Dee, Shaopeng Wang, Claire de Mazancourt, Michel Loreau, Andrew Gonzalez
Summary: The study used a Lotka-Volterra competition model to simulate the scale dependence of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, finding that more biodiversity is required to maintain functioning at larger spatial and temporal scales, with the autocorrelation of environmental heterogeneity influencing the rate at which the number of species needed increases.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jakob Runge
Summary: Detecting and quantifying causal relations in ecosystem functioning is challenging and involves reasoning about underlying assumptions. A global study on grasslands highlights the importance of considering confounding, nonlinearity, and determinism in modern causal inference approaches in ecology.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Shu Wang, Ragan M. Callaway
Summary: The study reveals that interactions between different plants can influence the growth and plasticity of plants in response to environmental factors, especially in dry conditions, plant interactions may have a positive facilitative effect on plant growth.
Article
Ecology
Dan Wu, Chi Xu, Shaopeng Wang, Lai Zhang, Susanne Kortsch
Summary: The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions has been widely studied, but the variation in ecosystem functions across systems with similar species diversity has been rarely addressed. In this study, a food web model and empirical data were used to examine the relationships between species richness and variation in ecosystem functions. The results suggest that the variation in ecosystem functions is influenced by trophic interactions and the diversity of basal species, which has implications for biodiversity loss and ecosystem predictability.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Oliver S. Ashford, Shuzhe Guan, Dante Capone, Katherine Rigney, Katelynn Rowley, Erik E. Cordes, Jorge Cortes, Greg W. Rouse, Guillermo F. Mendoza, Andrew K. Sweetman, Lisa A. Levin
Summary: As biodiversity loss accelerates globally, understanding how environmental influence shapes biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships is crucial for ecosystem management. In deep-sea chemosynthetic methane seeps, ecosystem functioning proxies peaked below maximum biodiversity, suggesting that specialized species may play a key role in shaping this relationship. Further investigation of BEF relationships in non-traditional resource environments is needed to maintain ecosystem functioning in deep-sea environments.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Plant Sciences
Long Yang, Yuhui Huang, Lucas Vieira Lima, Zhongyu Sun, Meijie Liu, Jun Wang, Nan Liu, Hai Ren
Summary: Dicranopteris is an ancient and widespread genus of ferns in pantropical regions. Some species of this genus can form dense thickets and dominate the understory, but they have been mostly cut or burned in forest management. However, they play important roles in ecosystem recovery, resistance to environmental stress, and succession control, and may expand their distribution in response to global warming, changes in precipitation patterns, deforestation, and land degradation. It is recommended that more attention be paid to Dicranopteris in future research and management practices to promote forest regeneration and succession.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Ecology
Fons van der Plas, Justus Hennecke, Jonathan M. Chase, Jasper van Ruijven, Kathryn E. Barry
Summary: Widespread evidence suggests that the loss of local species richness (a-diversity) hampers biomass production and ecosystem stability. However, studies on the impact of 3-diversity (variation in species compositions among ecological communities) on ecosystem functioning have produced mixed results. To better understand the importance of 3-diversity, it is necessary to consider it in different contexts. By examining three scenarios that create gradients in 3-diversity, namely changes in abiotic heterogeneity, habitat isolation, and species pool richness, it is demonstrated that there are not universally positive relationships between 3-diversity, production, and ecosystem stability. Nevertheless, predictable relationships exist in specific contexts, which can reconcile seemingly contrasting empirical relationships.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Francesco Polazzo, Talles Bruno Oliveira dos Anjos, Alba Arenas-Sanchez, Susana Romo, Marco Vighi, Andreu Rico
Summary: This study found that the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions is influenced by nutrients and pesticides, with different effects of pesticides under different nutrient conditions. Eutrophication can increase resistance to pesticides and promote the dominance of more resilient species. Stressor interactions can affect the recovery of community composition, and the correlation between biodiversity and ecosystem functions may shift under certain stress conditions.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Alejandro Berlinches de Gea, Yann Hautier, Stefan Geisen
Summary: Biodiversity, both aboveground and belowground, is negatively affected by global changes such as drought or warming. This article highlights the need to understand the relationship between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning under the influence of interactive global change drivers. The results from scarce studies studying interactive effects range from antagonistic to additive to synergistic, indicating the importance of quantitatively accounting for the impacts of interactive global change drivers on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relationships.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Sarah Mayor, Eric Allan, Florian Altermatt, Forest Isbell, Michael E. Schaepman, Bernhard Schmid, Pascal A. Niklaus
Summary: Numerous biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments have shown that plant community productivity typically increases with species diversity. Additionally, research has found that the relationship between species diversity and functioning depends on the spatial scale considered, and ecological systems are hierarchically structured with additional biological variation.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Zhendu Mao, Zifan Zhao, Jun Da, Ye Tao, Huabing Li, Biying Zhao, Peng Xing, Qinglong Wu
Summary: The relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in microbial communities have been found to be influenced by the abundance of rare species and high-abundance species. The manipulation of microbial diversity using the dilution-to-extinction method has become popular for exploring these relationships. Our study found that the assembly processes of microbial communities in dilution-to-extinction experiments have a significant impact on the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOME
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Lan Du, Shengchuan Tian, Jing Sun, Bin Zhang, Xiao-Han Mu, Lisong Tang, Xinjun Zheng, Yan Li
Summary: Dryland ecosystems face serious threats from climate change. This study examined the spatial patterns of ecosystem multifunctionality and maximum height in natural shrub communities in Northwest China, and considered a set of potential environmental drivers. The results showed that both ecosystem multifunctionality and maximum height were affected by longitude and positively correlated with the precipitation gradient. The study also found that species beta diversity is the most common predictor of ecosystem multifunctionality.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Shuaizhi Lu, Dou Zhang, Le Wang, Lei Dong, Changcheng Liu, Dongjie Hou, Guoping Chen, Xianguo Qiao, Yuyouting Wang, Ke Guo
Summary: Understanding the mechanisms underlying the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) is critical for ecosystem management. Differences in BEF relationships along altitudinal gradients between forests and shrublands have been poorly understood, hindering effective management and carbon storage. This study found that structural diversity mainly promotes carbon storage in forests, while species diversity has a greater positive effect on carbon storage in shrublands.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
K. C. Arrowsmith, Victoria A. Reynolds, Heather M. Briggs, Berry J. Brosi
Summary: A critical goal for ecologists is to understand the impact of ongoing species losses on ecosystem functions. The relationship between diversity and ecosystem functions involving multiple trophic levels is less predictable. This study focuses on pollination functioning and assesses the effects of bumble bee species richness on seed production in a perennial herb. The results demonstrate the complex dynamics of ecosystem function in multitrophic systems and the importance of community context in diversity-functioning relationships.
Article
Plant Sciences
Shan Kothari, Rebecca Montgomery, Jeannine Cavender-Bares
Summary: The positive and negative species interactions in the experiment can largely be explained by the photosynthetic responses of trees to the light environment created by their neighbors. The study shows that photosynthetic physiology can help explain the species interactions that underlie biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Forest Isbell, Patricia Balvanera, Akira S. Mori, Jin-Sheng He, James M. Bullock, Ganga Ram Regmi, Eric W. Seabloom, Simon Ferrier, Osvaldo E. Sala, Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ramirez, Julia Tavella, Daniel J. Larkin, Bernhard Schmid, Charlotte L. Outhwaite, Pairot Pramual, Elizabeth T. Borer, Michel Loreau, Taiwo Crossby Omotoriogun, David O. Obura, Maggie Anderson, Cristina Portales-Reyes, Kevin Kirkman, Pablo M. Vergara, Adam Thomas Clark, Kimberly J. Komatsu, Owen L. Petchey, Sarah R. Weiskopf, Laura J. Williams, Scott L. Collins, Nico Eisenhauer, Christopher H. Trisos, Delphine Renard, Alexandra J. Wright, Poonam Tripathi, Jane Cowles, Jarrett E. K. Byrnes, Peter B. Reich, Andy Purvis, Zati Sharip, Mary O'Connor, Clare E. Kazanski, Nick M. Haddad, Eulogio H. Soto, Laura E. Dee, Sandra Diaz, Chad R. Zirbel, Meghan L. Avolio, Shaopeng Wang, Zhiyuan Ma, Jingjing Liang, Hanan C. Farah, Justin Andrew Johnson, Brian W. Miller, Yann Hautier, Melinda D. Smith, Johannes M. H. Knops, Bonnie J. E. Myers, Zuzana Harmackova, Jorge Cortes, Michael B. J. Harfoot, Andrew Gonzalez, Tim Newbold, Jacqueline Oehri, Marina Mazon, Cynnamon Dobbs, Meredith S. Palmer
Summary: Despite progress in understanding global biodiversity loss, there are still taxonomic and geographic knowledge gaps. Decision makers often rely on expert judgement, but cannot engage with large and diverse groups of specialists. A survey of biodiversity experts worldwide revealed consensus and differences in perspectives and estimates, with underrepresented groups recommending different conservation priorities and providing higher estimates of biodiversity loss.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yunhua Liu, Junhui Cheng, Bernhard Schmid, Jiandong Sheng
Summary: Woody plant encroachment in arid grasslands may reduce plant uptake and soil storage of carbon (C), particularly in more arid regions. This study conducted a comparative analysis of grasslands with different levels of woody plant encroachment in Xinjiang, China, and found that the difference in soil organic C (SOC) stocks between wooded and pure grasslands shifted from positive to negative with increasing aridity. The differences in SOC stocks were linked to differences in plant belowground standing C (BGC) and annual plant aboveground C uptake (ANPP), with wooded grasslands having lower ANPP and BGC in more arid sites. These findings highlight the importance of preventing or mitigating woody plant encroachment to avoid future losses of grassland SOC stocks.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Akanksha Singh, Christian Schob, Pietro P. M. Iannetta
Summary: The study aimed to investigate the influence of companion plant species on biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) and nutrient concentration of common bean in crop mixtures. Results showed that beans exhibited low levels of BNF and potentially competed with other species for available soil nitrogen in mixtures. However, chickpeas showed enhanced BNF when grown in mixtures. Additionally, biomass and nutrient assimilation of chickpea and Sorghum were higher in monocultures compared to mixtures with beans, suggesting competitive effects.
Article
Agronomy
Chloe MacLaren, Wycliffe Waswa, Kamaluddin Tijjani Aliyu, Lieven Claessens, Andrew Mead, Christian Schob, Bernard Vanlauwe, Jonathan Storkey
Summary: This study examines the relationship between two functional traits (plant height and specific leaf area) and intercrop productivity. The results show that these two traits have limited explanatory power, indicating the need to consider other factors to better understand intercrop productivity.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Andreas Schuldt, Xiaojuan Liu, Francois Buscot, Helge Bruelheide, Alexandra Erfmeier, Jin-Sheng He, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Keping Ma, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Bernhard Schmid, Thomas Scholten, Zhiyao Tang, Stefan Trogisch, Christian Wirth, Tesfaye Wubet, Michael Staab
Summary: Carbon-focused climate mitigation strategies are important in forests, but we need better understanding of their impact on biodiversity. A study using a large dataset from subtropical forests found that aboveground carbon was not strongly related to multitrophic diversity, while total carbon including belowground carbon was a significant predictor. Relationships were nonlinear and strongest for lower trophic levels. Tree species richness and stand age influenced these relationships, suggesting long-term forest regeneration is effective in reconciling carbon and biodiversity targets. This highlights the need to carefully evaluate the biodiversity benefits of climate-oriented management.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Iris Hordijk, Daniel S. Maynard, Simon P. Hart, Lidong Mo, Hans ter Steege, Jingjing Liang, Sergio de-Miguel, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Peter B. Reich, Meinrad Abegg, C. Yves Adou Yao, Giorgio Alberti, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Braulio V. Alvarado, Alvarez-Davila Esteban, Patricia Alvarez-Loayza, Luciana F. Alves, Christian Ammer, Clara Anton-Fernandez, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Luzmila Arroyo, Valerio Avitabile, Gerardo A. Aymard C, Timothy Baker, Radomir Balazy, Olaf Banki, Jorcely Barroso, Meredith L. Bastian, Jean-Francois Bastin, Luca Birigazzi, Philippe Birnbaum, Robert Bitariho, Pascal Boeckx, Frans Bongers, Olivier Bouriaud, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Susanne Brandl, Roel Brienen, Eben N. Broadbent, Helge Bruelheide, Filippo Bussotti, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Ricardo G. Cesar, Goran Cesljar, Robin Chazdon, Han Y. H. Chen, Chelsea Chisholm, Emil Cienciala, Connie J. Clark, David B. Clark, Gabriel Colletta, David Coomes, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Jose J. Corral-Rivas, Philip Crim, Jonathan Cumming, Selvadurai Dayanandan, Andre L. de Gasper, Mathieu Decuyper, Geraldine Derroire, Ben DeVries, Ilija Djordjevic, Amaral Ieda, Aurelie Dourdain, Engone Obiang Nestor Laurier, Brian Enquist, Teresa Eyre, Adande Belarmain Fandohan, Tom M. Fayle, Leandro V. Ferreira, Ted R. Feldpausch, Leena Finer, Markus Fischer, Christine Fletcher, Lorenzo Frizzera, Javier G. P. Gamarra, Damiano Gianelle, Henry B. Glick, David Harris, Andrew Hector, Andrea Hemp, Geerten Hengeveld, Bruno Herault, John Herbohn, Annika Hillers, Euridice N. Honorio Coronado, Cang Hui, Hyunkook Cho, Thomas Ibanez, Il Bin Jung, Nobuo Imai, Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Vivian Johanssen, Carlos A. Joly, Tommaso Jucker, Viktor Karminov, Kuswata Kartawinata, Elizabeth Kearsley, David Kenfack, Deborah Kennard, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Gunnar Keppel, Mohammed Latif Khan, Timothy Killeen, Hyun Seok Kim, Kanehiro Kitayama, Michael Koehl, Henn Korjus, Florian Kraxner, Diana Laarmann, Mait Lang, Simon Lewis, Huicu Lu, Natalia Lukina, Brian Maitner, Yadvinder Malhi, Eric Marcon, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon-Junior, Andrew Robert Marshall, Emanuel Martin, Olga Martynenko, Jorge A. Meave, Omar Melo-Cruz, Casimiro Mendoza, Cory Merow, Miscicki Stanislaw, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Vanessa Moreno, Sharif A. Mukul, Philip Mundhenk, Maria G. Nava-Miranda, David Neill, Victor Neldner, Radovan Nevenic, Michael Ngugi, Pascal A. Niklaus, Jacek Oleksyn, Petr Ontikov, Edgar Ortiz-Malavasi, Yude Pan, Alain Paquette, Alexander Parada-Gutierrez, Elena Parfenova, Minjee Park, Mar Parren, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Pablo L. Peri, Sebastian Pfautsch, Oliver L. Phillips, Nicolas Picard, Maria Teresa Piedade, Daniel Piotto, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Irina Polo, Lourens Poorter, Axel Dalberg Poulsen, John R. Poulsen, Hans Pretzsch, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Zorayda Restrepo-Correa, Mirco Rodeghiero, Samir Rolim, Anand Roopsind, Francesco Rovero, Ervan Rutishauser, Purabi Saikia, Christian Salas-Eljatib, Peter Schall, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Bernhard Schmid, Jochen Schongart, Eric B. Searle, Vladimir Seben, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Douglas Sheil, Anatoly Shvidenko, Javier Silva-Espejo, Marcos Silveira, James Singh, Plini Sist, Ferry Slik, Bonaventure Sonke, Alexandre F. Souza, Krzysztof Sterenczak, Jens-Christian Svenning, Miroslav Svoboda, Ben Swanepoel, Natalia Targhetta, Nadja Tchebakova, Raquel Thomas, Elen Tikhonova, Peter Umunay, Vladimir Usoltsev, Renato Valencia, Fernando Valladares, Fons van Der Plas, Do Van Tran, Michael E. Van Nuland, Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, Hans Verbeeck, Helder Viana, Alexander C. Vibrans, Simone Vieira, Klaus von Gadow, Hua-Feng Wang, James Watson, Gijsbert D. A. Werner, Susan K. Wiser, Florian Wittmann, Verginia Wortel, Roderick Zagt, Tomasz Zawila-Niedzwiecki, Chunyu Zhang, Xiuhai Zhao, Mo Zhou, Zhi-Xin Zhu, Irie Casimir Zo-Bi, Thomas W. Crowther
Summary: Biodiversity is important for ecosystems, with higher species richness often leading to increased productivity. However, the relationship between biodiversity and productivity varies across environments and is less pronounced at high levels of species richness. Community evenness can mediate this relationship, and our study shows that it is negatively correlated with species richness and plays a crucial role in the biodiversity-productivity relationship.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Samuel E. Wuest, Lukas Schulz, Surbhi Rana, Julia Frommelt, Merten Ehmig, Nuno D. Pires, Ueli Grossniklaus, Christian S. Hardtke, Ulrich Z. Hammes, Bernhard Schmid, Pascal A. Niklaus
Summary: In plant communities, the positive diversity effects are often attributed to complementary niches occupied by different species or genotypes. However, the specific nature of niche complementarity, including how it is expressed in terms of trait differences between plants, remains unclear.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Environmental Sciences
Daniel Fischer, Bernhard Schmid, Irmi Seidl
GAIA-ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES FOR SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Fabian D. Schneider, Marcos Longo, Eugenie Paul-Limoges, Victoria M. Scholl, Bernhard Schmid, Felix Morsdorf, Ryan P. Pavlick, David S. Schimel, Michael E. Schaepman, Paul R. Moorcroft
Summary: Forest biodiversity plays a critical role in ecosystem functions, but the influence of plant functional diversity on ecosystem functioning across environmental gradients and large areas remains uncertain. Through integrating remote sensing and terrestrial biosphere modeling, this study explored the relationship between functional diversity and productivity in a heterogeneous forest ecosystem in Switzerland. The findings showed that functional diversity significantly increased productivity at local spatial scales but reached saturation at larger spatial scales due to low beta diversity and limited representation of physiological diversity in the model. Therefore, the environmental context is a key factor in determining productivity and functional diversity at larger spatial scales.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-BIOGEOSCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Yi Li, Bernhard Schmid, Andreas Schuldt, Shan Li, Ming-Qiang Wang, Felix Fornoff, Michael Staab, Peng-Fei Guo, Perttu Anttonen, Douglas Chesters, Helge Bruelheide, Chao-Dong Zhu, Keping Ma, Xiaojuan Liu
Summary: Using data from the BEF-China tree diversity experiment, the authors found that higher tree diversity led to higher diversity of arthropods. They also discovered that the suppression of herbivores by enemy arthropods could be a mechanism through which tree diversity promotes productivity. These findings highlight the importance of promoting diversity in both trees and higher trophic groups for optimizing forest management and increasing carbon capture.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Laura Argens, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Markus Lange, Yvonne Oelmann, Christiane Roscher, Holger Schielzeth, Bernhard Schmid, Wolfgang Wilcke, Sebastian T. Meyer
Summary: Ecosystem management aims to provide multiple ecosystem services simultaneously. The multifunctionality of ecosystem services can be limited by tradeoffs and enhanced by synergies among underlying ecosystem functions. This study investigates the drivers of correlations between ecosystem functions and highlights the importance of measuring pairs of functions repeatedly under different conditions to derive recommendations for grassland management.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nigenare Amantai, Yuanyuan Meng, Shanshan Song, Zihui Li, Bowen Hou, Zhiyao Tang
Summary: Investigating how the productivity dynamics of planted forests vary over time is important for understanding the resilience of forests and maximizing ecological restoration efforts. This study analyzed the interannual variability in net primary production (NPP) in planted forests on the Loess Plateau, China, and found that there was an increasing variability in most regions, while the variability decreased in certain areas due to forest restoration and management efforts.
Article
Forestry
Tong-Yan LIu, Chengjun Ji, Zhiyao Tang
Summary: By integrating multiple methods, we can quantitatively describe the cell wall deposition and lignification degree for softwood and hardwood tree species, improving the accuracy of cell development stage discrimination. This approach has potential applications in studying scientific issues related to wood formation and accumulation processes.
Review
Plant Sciences
Christian Schob, Nadine Engbersen, Jesus Lopez-Angulo, Anja Schmutz, Laura Stefan
Summary: Inspired by grassland biodiversity experiments, the Crop Diversity Experiment aimed to test the impact of plant diversity on primary productivity in annual crop systems. The experiment demonstrated that crop mixtures not only increased yield compared to monoculture, but often outperformed the highest yielding monoculture. The underlying mechanisms of the yield benefits included both direct complementarities between crop species and indirect effects via other organisms, such as weed suppression and plant growth-promoting microbes.
JOURNAL OF PLANT ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Anja Schmutz, Christian Schoeb
Summary: This study found that co-adapted crop species with reduced negative interactions might have the potential to enhance productivity, especially in more diverse cropping systems. This supports the notion that intercropping is a vital part towards a more sustainable agriculture and one with further yield potential when developing cultivars optimised for growth in mixtures.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)