Lost in trait space: species-poor communities are inflexible in properties that drive ecosystem functioning

Vogel, Anja; Manning, Peter; Cadotte, Marc W.; Cowles, Jane; Isbell, Forest; Jousset, Alexandre; Kimmel, Kaitlin; Meyer, Sebastian T.; Roscher, Christiane; Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael; Tilman, David; Weigelt, Alexandra; Wright, Alexandra J.; Eisenhauer, Nico; Wagg, Cameron

doi:10.1016/bs.aecr.2019.06.002

Cited by 24 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…morphological traits of leaves and roots were orthogonal) were subsequently analysed separately. The LES included CWM for SLA, LDMC and leaf N concentration similar to Vogel et al (2019). Using species-level traits as the input for the PCA and then weighting the PCA scores by species relative abundance resulted in similar CWM trait values (R 2 = 0.98, details not shown).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant community flood resilience in intensively managed grasslands and the role of the plant economic spectrum

Oram

Deyn

Bodelier

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant community flood resilience in intensively managed grasslands and the role of the plant economic spectrum

Oram

Deyn

Bodelier

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Environmental change often affects the composition of communities by altering the environmental conditions, modifying available niche space directly (niche destruction; Harpole et al., 2016) and/or indirectly through altered biotic interactions (Turnbull et al, 2016). For instance, the addition of nutrients has been repeatedly shown to favor the growth of certain plant species with high nutritional demands and fast uptake strategies (Clark et al, 2007; Harpole and Tilman, 2007; Harpole et al, 2016; Vogel et al, 2019a this issue ). Increased plant growth of some species, in turn, induces the shading of other species, which then disappear because their niche requirements are no longer met (Hautier et al, 2009).…”

Section: What Are the Key Challenges Of Future Bef Research?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The potential cascading effects of community diversity on population diversity and eventually intra-specific and phylogenetic diversity as well as consequences for ecosystem functioning are poorly studied (but see Crutsinger et al, 2006; Hughes et al., 2008; Zeng et al, 2017). In fact, there has been a recent interest in how populations assemble with respect to functional diversity, but also phylogenetic diversity, and the underlying mechanisms are relevant in the BEF context as community assembly and disassembly processes have implications for the long-term functioning of plant communities (Vogel et al, 2019a this issue ). Species differ partly due to divergent directional selection.…”

Section: What Are the Key Challenges Of Future Bef Research?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A multitrophic perspective on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research

Eisenhauer

Schielzeth

Barnes

et al. 2019

Advances in Ecological Research

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Concern about the functional consequences of unprecedented loss in biodiversity has prompted biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research to become one of the most active fields of ecological research in the past 25 years. Hundreds of experiments have manipulated biodiversity as an independent variable and found compelling support that the functioning of ecosystems increases with the diversity of their ecological communities. This research has also identified some of the mechanisms underlying BEF relationships, some context-dependencies of the strength of relationships, as well as implications for various ecosystem services that mankind depends upon. In this paper, we argue that a multitrophic perspective of biotic interactions in random and nonrandom biodiversity change scenarios is key to advance future BEF research and to address some of its most important remaining challenges. We discuss that the study and the quantification of multitrophic interactions in space and time facilitates scaling up from small-scale biodiversity manipulations and ecosystem function assessments to management-relevant spatial scales across ecosystem boundaries. We specifically consider multitrophic conceptual frameworks to understand and predict the context-dependency of BEF relationships. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the eco-evolutionary underpinnings of multitrophic BEF relationships. We outline that FAIR data (meeting the standards of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) and reproducible processing will be key to advance this field of research by making it more integrative. Finally, we show how these BEF insights may be implemented for ecosystem management, society, and policy. Given that human well-being critically depends on the multiple services provided by diverse, multitrophic communities, integrating the approaches of evolutionary Eisenhauer et al.

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“…A solution to this problem is the use of species traits, as species sharing similar traits have been shown to respond consistently to land-use change (6,7). Furthermore, in agricultural landscapes, trait diversity plays an important role in determining the capacity of ecosystems to cope with future environmental changes (8) and secure the provision of key ecosystem services. However, the long-term response of functional diversity to land-use changes is unknown as previous studies investigating the effects of land-use history have focused on species richness (3,9), ignoring trait diversity.…”

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confidence: 99%

Land-use history impacts functional diversity across multiple trophic groups

Provost

Badenhausser

Bagousse‐Pinguet

et al. 2020

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

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104

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Land-use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss worldwide. Although biodiversity often shows a delayed response to land-use change, previous studies have typically focused on a narrow range of current landscape factors and have largely ignored the role of land-use history in shaping plant and animal communities and their functional characteristics. Here, we used a unique database of 220,000 land-use records to investigate how 20-y of land-use changes have affected functional diversity across multiple trophic groups (primary producers, mutualists, herbivores, invertebrate predators, and vertebrate predators) in 75 grassland fields with a broad range of land-use histories. The effects of land-use history on multitrophic trait diversity were as strong as other drivers known to impact biodiversity, e.g., grassland management and current landscape composition. The diversity of animal mobility and resource-acquisition traits was lower in landscapes where much of the land had been historically converted from grassland to crop. In contrast, functional biodiversity was higher in landscapes containing old permanent grasslands, most likely because they offer a stable and high-quality habitat refuge for species with low mobility and specialized feeding niches. Our study shows that grassland-to-crop conversion has long-lasting impacts on the functional biodiversity of agricultural ecosystems. Accordingly, land-use legacy effects must be considered in conservation programs aiming to protect agricultural biodiversity. In particular, the retention of permanent grassland sanctuaries within intensive landscapes may offset ecological debts.

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Lost in trait space: species-poor communities are inflexible in properties that drive ecosystem functioning

Cited by 24 publications

References 116 publications

Plant community flood resilience in intensively managed grasslands and the role of the plant economic spectrum

Plant community flood resilience in intensively managed grasslands and the role of the plant economic spectrum

A multitrophic perspective on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research

Land-use history impacts functional diversity across multiple trophic groups

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