Anthropogenic environmental changes affect ecosystem stability via biodiversity

Hautier, Yann; Tilman, David; Isbell, Forest; Seabloom, Eric W.; Borer, Elizabeth T.; Reich, Peter B.

doi:10.1126/science.aaa1788

Cited by 562 publications

(513 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As is typical in observational studies, effects of the different drivers we inspected were not fully independent. Hence, effects of environmental drivers of productivity were partly mediated via biodiversity (and vice versa), in line with earlier studies (40,41). Despite dominant influences of altitude-related climatic effects, residual effects of biodiversity on productivity and season lengthening were substantial.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale

Oehri

Schmid

Schaepman‐Strub

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

109

141

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Experiments have shown positive biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships in small plots with model communities established from species pools typically comprising few dozen species. Whether patterns found can be extrapolated to complex, nonexperimental, real-world landscapes that provide ecosystem services to humans remains unclear. Here, we combine species inventories from a large-scale network of 447 1-km 2 plots with remotely sensed indices of primary productivity (years 2000-2015). We show that landscape-scale productivity and its temporal stability increase with the diversity of plants and other taxa. Effects of biodiversity indicators on productivity were comparable in size to effects of other important drivers related to climate, topography, and land cover. These effects occurred in plots that integrated different ecosystem types (i.e., metaecosystems) and were consistent over vast environmental and altitudinal gradients. The BEF relations we report are as strong or even exceed the ones found in small-scale experiments, despite different community assembly processes and a species pool comprising nearly 2,000 vascular plant species. Growing season length increased progressively over the observation period, and this shift was accelerated in more diverse plots, suggesting that a large species pool is important for adaption to climate change. Our study further implies that abiotic global-change drivers may mediate ecosystem functioning through biodiversity changes.ecosystem function and services | EVI and NDVI land surface phenology | large spatial scale | nonexperimental, real-world ecosystems | plant, bird, and butterfly species richness

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale

Oehri

Schmid

Schaepman‐Strub

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

109

141

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Biodiversity is widely acknowledged to significantly influence the magnitude and stability of a large array of ecosystem properties, with stronger impacts evident when larger scales (1) and multiple functions are considered (2,3). These findings provide compelling support for biodiverse systems being functionally robust, with greater stability of function (4)(5)(6), resistance to invasion (7)(8)(9)(10), and resistance to pathogen spread (11). Some of the impacts of higher levels of biodiversity on ecosystem properties that are apparent at ecological timescales (e.g., greater resistance to invasion) may influence evolutionary processes, like extinction rates.…”

mentioning

confidence: 60%

Bird assemblage vulnerability depends on the diversity and biogeographic histories of islands

Weeks

Gregory

Naeem

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Biodiversity is widely acknowledged to influence the magnitude and stability of a large array of ecosystem properties, with biodiverse systems thought to be more functionally robust. As such, diverse systems may be safer harbors for vulnerable species, resulting in a positive association between biodiversity and the collective vulnerability of species in an assemblage, or “assemblage vulnerability.” We find that, for 35 islands across Northern Melanesia, bird assemblage vulnerability and biodiversity are positively associated. This relationship is highly contingent on Pleistocene connectivity, suggesting that biogeographic history—a factor often overlooked in biodiversity and ecosystem-functioning studies—may influence contemporary ecological processes. In the face of biodiversity loss attributable to anthropogenic drivers, reduced ecosystem functioning may erode the safe harbors of vulnerable assemblages. Paradoxically, these results suggest that biodiverse systems, as more robust systems, may experience greater biodiversity loss over ecological time because they harbor more vulnerable species accumulated over evolutionary time.

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“…104 Therefore, while the species composition of an ecosystem is typically the target of 105 conservation, it is ecosystem functions, rather than species composition per se, that need to 106 be resilient, if ecosystem services are to be maintained ( Figure 1 [19], or alternatively as the inverse of ecological 'vulnerability' [34]. Resilience 111 in this context is related to the stability of an ecosystem function as defined by its constancy 112 over time [35], but the approach of using a minimum threshold more explicitly measures for rapid onset changes if tipping points are reached [40]. 133 The impacts of environmental perturbations on ecosystem functions will depend on the population [18].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%