Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity.
Ecol Lett
; 16(5): 617-25, 2013 May.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23438189
ABSTRACT
As biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, an important current scientific challenge is to understand and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss. Here, we develop a theory that predicts the temporal variability of community biomass from the properties of individual component species in monoculture. Our theory shows that biodiversity stabilises ecosystems through three main mechanisms (1) asynchrony in species' responses to environmental fluctuations, (2) reduced demographic stochasticity due to overyielding in species mixtures and (3) reduced observation error (including spatial and sampling variability). Parameterised with empirical data from four long-term grassland biodiversity experiments, our prediction explained 22-75% of the observed variability, and captured much of the effect of species richness. Richness stabilised communities mainly by increasing community biomass and reducing the strength of demographic stochasticity. Our approach calls for a re-evaluation of the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem stability.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Ecossistema
/
Biodiversidade
/
Modelos Teóricos
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
/
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Ecol Lett
Ano de publicação:
2013
Tipo de documento:
Article