Mechanisms contributing to stability in ecosystem function depend on the environmental context

Grman, Emily; Lau, Jennifer A.; Schoolmaster, Donald R.; Gross, Katherine L.

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01533.x

Cited by 261 publications

(371 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…However, since richness was manipulated independent of variation in other factors, these studies failed to include the realism that richness might be affected by factors such as anthropogenic disturbance as it was observed in our case. Recently, a limited number of studies have begun to manipulate environmental factors (e.g., nutrient enrichment, biomass harvesting) to test the effect of resulting variation in species richness on stability [33,34]. In line with the results of these studies, we also found a persistently positive relationship between species richness and community stability under anthropogenic disturbance.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Effects of anthropogenic disturbance on richness-dependent stability in Napahai plateau wetland

Wang

Fan

et al. 2013

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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Unique plateau wetlands in China provide essential ecosystem functions and services and influence the health, environment and security of the downstream regions. In recent years, these plateau wetlands have experienced significant anthropogenic disturbance, but studies that evaluate the effects of such disturbance on ecological stability are rare. Our study tested how three typical types of human-related activities affect plant richness and ecological stability in Napahai plateau wetland, Shangri-La, China. The results showed that the anthropogenic disturbance had a direct effect on richness, and an indirect effect on stability mediated by richness. Anthropogenic disturbance did not alter the positive relationship between plant richness and community stability, and the stabilizing effect of richness could be explained by statistical averaging, overyielding effect, and component population stability. Our study complements previous studies that tested the richness-stability relationships in synthesized assemblages with richness specifically manipulated and studies that introduced mowing treatment to mimic real anthropogenic disturbance. The results further suggest that necessary steps, such as anthropogenic disturbance mitigation and plant richness conservation, are urgently required for maintaining healthy plateau wetlands and for sustaining their ecosystem functions and services.Napahai plateau wetland, community stability, anthropogenic disturbance, richness-stability relationship, stabilizing mechanisms Citation:Li W, Tan R, Wang J, et al. Effects of anthropogenic disturbance on richness-dependent stability in Napahai plateau wetland. Chin Sci Bull, 2013, 58: 41204125,

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Effects of anthropogenic disturbance on richness-dependent stability in Napahai plateau wetland

Wang

Fan

et al. 2013

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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“…Previous studies have reported that stability may be a product of the dynamics of the dominant species (Polley et al 2007, Grman et al 2010, Sanderson 2010, which is undoubtedly true, but our analyses reveal that plots with more evolutionarily distinct species are more stable, regardless of the abundance distribution (e.g., H ed is a better explanation of stability than the abundance-weighted H aed ). Interestingly, patterns of average biomass production and asynchrony, which is a pairwise attribute, were better explained by measures that incorporate relative abundances.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 38%

Phylogenetic diversity promotes ecosystem stability

Cadotte¹,

Dinnage²,

Tilman³

2012

Ecology

412

336

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Abstract. Ecosystem stability in variable environments depends on the diversity of form and function of the constituent species. Species phenotypes and ecologies are the product of evolution, and the evolutionary history represented by co-occurring species has been shown to be an important predictor of ecosystem function. If phylogenetic distance is a surrogate for ecological differences, then greater evolutionary diversity should buffer ecosystems against environmental variation and result in greater ecosystem stability. We calculated both abundance-weighted and unweighted phylogenetic measures of plant community diversity for a long-term biodiversity-ecosystem function experiment at Cedar Creek, Minnesota, USA. We calculated a detrended measure of stability in aboveground biomass production in experimental plots and showed that phylogenetic relatedness explained variation in stability. Our results indicate that communities where species are evenly and distantly related to one another are more stable compared to communities where phylogenetic relationships are more clumped. This result could be explained by a phylogenetic sampling effect, where some lineages show greater stability in productivity compared to other lineages, and greater evolutionary distances reduce the chance of sampling only unstable groups. However, we failed to find evidence for similar stabilities among closely related species. Alternatively, we found evidence that plot biomass variance declined with increasing phylogenetic distances, and greater evolutionary distances may represent species that are ecologically different (phylogenetic complementarity). Accounting for evolutionary relationships can reveal how diversity in form and function may affect stability.

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“…Thus, maintenance of functioning over time might be promoted by turnover between functionally complementary species, with different species needed for function in different years. In some cases, however, production among dominant species alone can stabilize community biomass, meaning greater stability in less even communities (17,18). In this case, the presence of a species in the community with temporally stable high productivity might be sufficient to guarantee function over time, in which case species turnover would not promote high functioning.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

More diverse plant communities have higher functioning over time due to turnover in complementary dominant species

Allan

Weisser

Weigelt

et al. 2011

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

236

213

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More diverse communities have been shown to have higher and more temporally stable ecosystem functioning than less diverse ones, suggesting they should also have a consistently higher level of functioning over time. Diverse communities could maintain consistently high function because the species driving function change over time (functional turnover) or because they are more likely to contain key species with temporally stable functioning. Across 7 y in a large biodiversity experiment, we show that more diverse plant communities had consistently higher productivity, that is, a higher level of functioning over time. We identify the mechanism for this as turnover in the species driving biomass production; this was substantial, and species that were rare in some years became dominant and drove function in other years. Such high turnover allowed functionally more diverse communities to maintain high biomass over time and was associated with higher levels of complementarity effects in these communities. In contrast, turnover in communities composed of functionally similar species did not promote high biomass production over time. Thus, turnover in species promotes consistently high ecosystem function when it sustains functionally complementary interactions between species. Our results strongly reinforce the argument for conservation of high biodiversity.Jena Experiment | redundancy | grassland | species richness | evenness T he current global decline in biodiversity has prompted many studies to test the importance of species richness for maintaining ecosystem functioning. These studies show that species loss has negative effects on a range of ecosystem functions and services (1, 2) but that relatively few species are needed to sustain many functions (2), suggesting high redundancy (3). However, such redundancy is reduced if more than one ecosystem function is considered (4-6) or if species that do not contribute to a particular ecosystem function in one year are needed to maintain that function over time (7). Coexistence between species can be promoted if they have different responses to a temporally changing environment (8), and diverse communities have been shown to be more temporally stable in ecosystem function than less diverse ones (9, 10). These lines of evidence would suggest that a temporal change in the species driving function could allow diverse communities to maintain consistently high functioning over time. However, so far no study has quantified the importance of turnover in species for sustaining ecosystem function.Asynchronous species fluctuations, driven by intra-and interspecific density dependence, demographic stochasticity, or different responses to the temporally changing environment, can all stabilize community biomass (11). Both uncorrelated species fluctuations (12, 13) and compensatory dynamics can have this effect (14,15). Fluctuations in species abundances are generally higher in more species-rich and more even communities, and can allow such diverse communities to maintain a more stable ...

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Mechanisms contributing to stability in ecosystem function depend on the environmental context

Cited by 261 publications

References 53 publications

Effects of anthropogenic disturbance on richness-dependent stability in Napahai plateau wetland

Effects of anthropogenic disturbance on richness-dependent stability in Napahai plateau wetland

Phylogenetic diversity promotes ecosystem stability

More diverse plant communities have higher functioning over time due to turnover in complementary dominant species

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