Biodiversity as a multidimensional construct: a review, framework and case study of herbivory's impact on plant biodiversity

Naeem, Shahid; Prager, Case M.; Weeks, Brian C.; Varga, Alex; Flynn, Dan F. B.; Griffin, Kevin L.; Muscarella, Robert; Palmer, Matthew I.; Wood, Stephen A.; Schuster, William S. F.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.3005

Cited by 59 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…; Naeem et al . ). Indeed, Elton () was speaking of this multidimensional nature of biodiversity when he posited that ‘…the balance of relatively simple communities of plants and animals is more easily upset than that of richer ones [emphasis added]’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Stability of grassland production is robust to changes in the consumer food web

et al. 2019

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Theory predicts that consumers may stabilise or destabilise plant production depending on model assumptions, and tests in aquatic food webs suggest that trophic interactions are stabilising. We quantified the effects of trophic interactions on temporal variability (standard deviation) and temporal stability (mean/standard deviation) of grassland biomass production and the plant diversity–stability relationship by experimentally removing heterotrophs (large vertebrates, arthropods, foliar and soil fungi) from naturally and experimentally assembled grasslands of varying diversity. In both grassland types, trophic interactions proportionately decreased plant community biomass mean and variability over the course of 6 years, leading to no net change in temporal stability or the plant diversity–stability relationship. Heterotrophs also mediated plant coexistence; their removal reduced diversity in naturally assembled grasslands. Thus, herbivores and fungi reduce biomass production, concurrently reducing the temporal variability of energy and material fluxes. Because of this coupling, grassland stability is robust to large food web perturbations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Stability of grassland production is robust to changes in the consumer food web

et al. 2019

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“…First, each of these mappings is much more complex than traditionally believed [104]. A species' ecological niche is a multi-dimensional concept that involves a large number of biological traits [65].…”

Section: The Nature Of Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the value of plant diversity for ecosystem functioning through niche theory

et al. 2016

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Biodiversity experiments have generated robust empirical results supporting the hypothesis that ecosystems function better when they contain more species. Given that ecosystems provide services that are valued by humans, this inevitably suggests that the loss of species from natural ecosystems could diminish their value. This raises two important questions. First, will experimental results translate into the real world, where species are being lost at an alarming rate? And second, what are the benefits and pitfalls of such valuation exercises? We argue that the empirical results obtained in experiments are entirely consistent with well-established theories of species coexistence. We then examine the current body of work through the lens of niche theory and highlight where closer links with theory could open up opportunities for future research. We argue that niche theory predicts that diversity-functioning relationships are likely to be stronger (and require more species) in the field than in simplified experimental settings. However, we caution that while many of the biological processes that promote coexistence can also generate diversity-function relationships, there is no simple mapping between the two. This implies that valuation exercises need to proceed with care.

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“…Moreover, similar shifts in wing shapes are relevant to seed dispersal dynamics, particularly in patchyor human-modified landscapes [37,45,46]. By focusing on specific avian trophic groups, and partitioning their functional morphology into separate niche axes, we can begin to examine the influence of land cover on multiple dimensions of biodiversity with relevance to ecosystem function and resilience [25,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using avian functional traits to assess the impact of land-cover change on ecosystem processes linked to resilience in tropical forests

et al. 2016

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Vertebrates perform key roles in ecosystem processes via trophic interactions with plants and insects, but the response of these interactions to environmental change is difficult to quantify in complex systems, such as tropical forests. Here, we use the functional trait structure of Amazonian forest bird assemblages to explore the impacts of land-cover change on two ecosystem processes: seed dispersal and insect predation. We show that trait structure in assemblages of frugivorous and insectivorous birds remained stable after primary forests were subjected to logging and fire events, but that further intensification of human land use substantially reduced the functional diversity and dispersion of traits, and resulted in communities that occupied a different region of trait space. These effects were only partially reversed in regenerating secondary forests. Our findings suggest that local extinctions caused by the loss and degradation of tropical forest are non-random with respect to functional traits, thus disrupting the network of trophic interactions regulating seed dispersal by forest birds and herbivory by insects, with important implications for the structure and resilience of human-modified tropical forests. Furthermore, our results illustrate how quantitative functional traits for specific guilds can provide a range of metrics for estimating the contribution of biodiversity to ecosystem processes, and the response of such processes to land-cover change

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Biodiversity as a multidimensional construct: a review, framework and case study of herbivory's impact on plant biodiversity

Cited by 59 publications

References 57 publications

Stability of grassland production is robust to changes in the consumer food web

Stability of grassland production is robust to changes in the consumer food web

Understanding the value of plant diversity for ecosystem functioning through niche theory

Using avian functional traits to assess the impact of land-cover change on ecosystem processes linked to resilience in tropical forests

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