Species asynchrony and response diversity determine multifunctional stability of natural grasslands

Abstract

A growing body of empirical evidence has suggested that biodiversity affects the simultaneous performance of multiple ecosystem functions (i.e. ecosystem multifunctionality). Given increasing environmental variability and uncertainty under global change, an emerging question is how biodiversity influences the stability of multiple functions (i.e. multifunctional stability). We currently know little, however, about the determinants and mechanisms of multifunctional stability, which is of practical importance for ensuring the sustainable provision of multiple functions. Here, we examined mechanisms contributing to stability (quantified as the ratio of the mean to the standard deviation) of multiple functions related to ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration, including plant above‐ground and below‐ground productivity, litter production, gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration, in a large grassland biodiversity experiment in Inner Mongolia. We found that community‐wide species asynchrony was a strong driver to stabilize multiple functions. Community‐wide asynchrony mediated the positive effects of species richness and response diversity (describing how species with similar effects on ecosystem function respond differently to environmental change) on multifunctional stability. However, species richness had a negative direct effect on multifunctional stability because, although it increased the averaged temporal mean of multiple functions, it strongly increased the averaged temporal standard deviation of multiple functions. The overall effects of species richness on multifunctional stability were thus negative, whereas those of response diversity were positive. Synthesis. The studied ecosystem functions related to ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration are important in natural grasslands across the world. We conclude that species asynchrony and response diversity, rather than species richness, are key to the ecosystem multifunctional stability. The loss of response diversity and compensatory mechanisms would likely reduce the long‐term sustainability of grasslands in the face of global change.

Community context modifies response of host-parasitoid interactions to phenological mismatch under warming

“…Moreover, we found that the presence of an alternative host diminishes differences in average host survival and parasitism rates across different biotic and abiotic factors. Like in other studies, temporal complementarity between species (e.g., variation in growth rates), and a diversity of responses to environmental changes were major stabilizing mechanisms in our system (Zhang et al2013;Craven et al 2018;Sasaki et al 2019), though this is the first example using a host-parasitoid system. While most studies recognize that functional redundancy and trait diversity at any given time can positively affect community resilience to environmental changes, it is rarely considered that these community parameters continuously change during the development of individuals within the community.…”

Temporal stability of biomass in annual plant communities is driven by species diversity and asynchrony, but not dominance

“…An important outcome of our analysis is that asynchrony of species fluctuations is a key driver of community biomass stability at the small spatial scale in mediterranean and semi‐arid annual plant communities. This stability–asynchrony relationship predicted by theory (de Mazancourt et al, 2013), has been found in a wide range of ecosystems (Blüthgen et al, 2016; Valencia et al, 2020), particularly in perennial grasslands (Isbell et al, 2009, 2015; Sasaki & Lauenroth, 2011; Yang et al, 2012; Xu et al, 2015; Zhang et al, 2016; Lepš et al, 2018; Sasaki et al, 2019). Yet, this relationship has been scarcely examined in annual plant communities, particularly in low productivity regions.…”

Co-producing ecosystem services for adapting to climate change

“…Synergies typically occur when ecosystems are managed for resilience, because mechanisms that underpin ecological resilience (e.g. functional redundancy, functional complementarity, role of keystone species, vegetation structural heterogeneity) also contribute to the provision of multiple services [4,[48][49][50][51].…”