The Role of Biodiversity in the Functioning of Freshwater and Marine Benthic Ecosystems

Covich, Alan P.; Austen, Melanie C.; Bärlocher, Feli×; Chauvet, Éric; Cardinale, Bradley J.; Biles, C. L.; Inchausti, Pablo; Dangles, Olivier; Solan, Martin; Gessner, Mark O.; Statzner, Bernhard; Moss, Brian

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0767:trobit]2.0.co;2

Cited by 322 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…However, although highly productive species do indeed make consistent and sizeable contributions to plant biodiversity effects, these are equaled or exceeded in frequency and magnitude by multispecies contributions to biomass. Our finding that the net effects of plant diversity on biomass are generally positive corroborates what appears to hold true for many types of organisms in ecosystems around the globe (10,11,(13)(14)(15)36). However, our finding that diverse polycultures tend to achieve less biomass than their most productive species contrasts with a common prediction in diversity-function research.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Studies analyzed here are a subset of those reviewed by Cardinale et al (14) but for which extensive amounts of new data were collected. Studies were identified from a literature search in which authors collated reference lists from recent surveys of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research (9,10,18,35,36), supplemented with a search of the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Knowledge database, using the keyword sequence species AND (diversity OR richness) AND (community OR ecosystem) AND (function OR functioning OR production OR productivity OR biomass). More than 200 articles published through 2005 were reviewed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of plant diversity on biomass production increase through time because of species complementarity

Cardinale

Wright

Cadotte

et al. 2007

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

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Accelerating rates of species extinction have prompted a growing number of researchers to manipulate the richness of various groups of organisms and examine how this aspect of diversity impacts ecological processes that control the functioning of ecosystems. We summarize the results of 44 experiments that have manipulated the richness of plants to examine how plant diversity affects the production of biomass. We show that mixtures of species produce an average of 1.7 times more biomass than species monocultures and are more productive than the average monoculture in 79% of all experiments. However, in only 12% of all experiments do diverse polycultures achieve greater biomass than their single most productive species. Previously, a positive net effect of diversity that is no greater than the most productive species has been interpreted as evidence for selection effects, which occur when diversity maximizes the chance that highly productive species will be included in and ultimately dominate the biomass of polycultures. Contrary to this, we show that although productive species do indeed contribute to diversity effects, these contributions are equaled or exceeded by species complementarity, where biomass is augmented by biological processes that involve multiple species. Importantly, both the net effect of diversity and the probability of polycultures being more productive than their most productive species increases through time, because the magnitude of complementarity increases as experiments are run longer. Our results suggest that experiments to date have, if anything, underestimated the impacts of species extinction on the productivity of ecosystems.biodiversity ͉ ecosystem function ͉ extinction ͉ productivity ͉ sampling effect

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of plant diversity on biomass production increase through time because of species complementarity

Cardinale

Wright

Cadotte

et al. 2007

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

Self Cite

1,274

119

1,232

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“…The genetic fingerprint of the microbial community provides information on the presence and relative abundance of the species and thus indicates biodiversity. In macro-ecology, a high biodiversity is considered as a good sign for environmental quality, while contamination is likely to decrease the species richness (Covich et al 2004). Contamination is also reported to decrease the biodiversity of the invertebrate fauna in groundwater (Griebler and Mösslacher 2003).…”

Section: Bioindicators For Groundwater Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Review: Microbial biocenoses in pristine aquifers and an assessment of investigative methods

2006

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The current knowledge of microbial biocenoses (communities) in pristine aquifers is presented in a review, which also discusses their relevance for questions of groundwater protection. Aquifers are heterogeneous on all scales and structured in a variety of habitats. The void spaces in many aquifers are small. The biocenoses are thus predominantly composed of microorganisms and, often, microinvertebrates. Larger voids and macroorganisms occur in karst cavities. Due to the absence of light, the biocenoses depend on chemical energy resources, which are, however, scarce in non-contaminated groundwater. The microorganisms thus show small cell sizes, low population densities and reduced activity; they developed specific strategies to survive oligotrophic conditions. The review also discusses the impact of contamination on the biocenoses, and the potential use of the biocenoses or specific organisms as indicators for groundwater quality, and the limits of this approach. Bacteria are either planktonic or attached to aquifer material, which requires both fluid and solid phase sampling. Most groundwater bacteria are viable but non-culturable. Consequently, cultivation techniques give an incomplete picture of the biocenoses, while methods from molecular microbiology provide genetic fingerprints of the entire community. Different analytical methods are available to count microorganisms, identify species, characterise microbial diversity, and measure activity.Résumé Cette revue expose l'état actuel des connaissances concernant les biocénoses microbiennes présentes dans les aquifères oligotrophes. L'impact d'une contamination sur les biocénoses est discuté, ainsi que le potentiel que Les bactéries sont planctoniques ou attachées aux matériaux de l'aquifère, ce qui demande unéchantillonnagè a la fois de l'eau et du substrat. De nombreuses méthodes sont aujourd'hui disponibles pour le comptage, l'identification et la caractérisation de la diversité, ainsi que la mesure des activités des organismes des aquifères. Comme la grande majorité des bactéries est viable mais non cultivable, les techniques de cultures actuelles ne donnent qu'une image incomplète des communautés, alors que les méthodes moléculaires développées récemment offrent la possibilité d'obtenir un profil de la communauté plus complet.Resumen Se presentauna reseña crítica del conocimiento actual de biocenosis microbiana (comunidades) en acuíferos prístinos la cual también discute su relevancia en términos de protección de aguas subterráneas. Los acuíferos son heterogéneos en todas las escalas y estructurados en una variedad de habitats. Los espacios vacíos en muchos acuíferos son pequeños. La biocenosis está por lo tanto compuesta predominantemente por microorganismos y, frecuentemente, microinvertebrados. Espacios más grandes y macroorganismos ocurren en cavidades kársticas. Debido a la ausencia de luz la biocenosis depende de recursos energéticos químicos los cuales, sin embargo, son escasos en agua subterránea no contaminada. Los microorganismos muestran...

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“…A number of recently published reviews and meta-analyses indicate that functioning is positively related to richness (Covich et al, 2004;Hillebrand and Cardinale, 2004;Balvanera et al, 2006;Cardinale et al, 2006), particularly with respect to biomass accumulation (Downing, 2005), resource use efficiency (Cardinale et al, 2006) and stability (Balvanera et al, 2006). However, there is ample evidence supporting a situation where community composition and species identity may be as important as species richness in determining ecosystem functioning (Covich et al, 2004;Downing, 2005;Cardinale et al, 2006). Pioneering studies focused on species richness as a measure of diversity, most commonly in studies of a single ecosystem process (Reiss et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Function-specific response to depletion of microbial diversity

et al. 2010

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Recent meta-analyses suggest that ecosystem functioning increases with biodiversity, but contradictory results have been presented for some microbial functions. Moreover, observations of only one function underestimate the functional role of diversity because of species-specific trade-offs in the ability to carry out different functions. We examined multiple functions in batch cultures of natural freshwater bacterial communities with different richness, achieved by a dilutionto-extinction approach. Community composition was assessed by molecular fingerprinting of 16S rRNA and chitinase genes, representing the total community and a trait characteristic for a functional group, respectively. Richness was positively related to abundance and biomass, negatively correlated to cell volumes and unrelated to maximum intrinsic growth rate. The response of chitin and cellulose degradation rates depended on the presence of a single phylotype. We suggest that species identity and community composition rather than richness matters for specific microbial processes.

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The Role of Biodiversity in the Functioning of Freshwater and Marine Benthic Ecosystems

Abstract: Empirical studies investigating the role of species diversity in sustaining ecosystem

Cited by 322 publications

References 65 publications

Impacts of plant diversity on biomass production increase through time because of species complementarity

Impacts of plant diversity on biomass production increase through time because of species complementarity

Review: Microbial biocenoses in pristine aquifers and an assessment of investigative methods

Function-specific response to depletion of microbial diversity

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