1
|
van der Plas F, Schröder-Georgi T, Weigelt A, Barry K, Meyer S, Alzate A, Barnard RL, Buchmann N, de Kroon H, Ebeling A, Eisenhauer N, Engels C, Fischer M, Gleixner G, Hildebrandt A, Koller-France E, Leimer S, Milcu A, Mommer L, Niklaus PA, Oelmann Y, Roscher C, Scherber C, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Scheu S, Schmid B, Schulze ED, Temperton V, Tscharntke T, Voigt W, Weisser W, Wilcke W, Wirth C. Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning. Nat Ecol Evol 2020; 4:1602-1611. [PMID: 33020598 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01316-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Earth is home to over 350,000 vascular plant species that differ in their traits in innumerable ways. A key challenge is to predict how natural or anthropogenically driven changes in the identity, abundance and diversity of co-occurring plant species drive important ecosystem-level properties such as biomass production or carbon storage. Here, we analyse the extent to which 42 different ecosystem properties can be predicted by 41 plant traits in 78 experimentally manipulated grassland plots over 10 years. Despite the unprecedented number of traits analysed, the average percentage of variation in ecosystem properties jointly explained was only moderate (32.6%) within individual years, and even much lower (12.7%) across years. Most other studies linking ecosystem properties to plant traits analysed no more than six traits and, when including only six traits in our analysis, the average percentage of variation explained in across-year levels of ecosystem properties dropped to 4.8%. Furthermore, we found on average only 12.2% overlap in significant predictors among ecosystem properties, indicating that a small set of key traits able to explain multiple ecosystem properties does not exist. Our results therefore suggest that there are specific limits to the extent to which traits per se can predict the long-term functional consequences of biodiversity change, so that data on additional drivers, such as interacting abiotic factors, may be required to improve predictions of ecosystem property levels.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fons van der Plas
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Life Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Thomas Schröder-Georgi
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Life Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Alexandra Weigelt
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Life Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kathryn Barry
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Life Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sebastian Meyer
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Adriana Alzate
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Romain L Barnard
- Agroécologie, AgroSup Dijon, INRA, Université Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | | | - Hans de Kroon
- Department of Experimental Plant Ecology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Anne Ebeling
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Markus Fischer
- Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Gerd Gleixner
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | - Anke Hildebrandt
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.,Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Sophia Leimer
- Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Alexandru Milcu
- Ecotron Européen de Montpellier, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France.,Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS-Université de Montpellier-Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier-EPHE, Montpellier, France
| | - Liesje Mommer
- Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Pascal A Niklaus
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Christiane Roscher
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christoph Scherber
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.,Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
| | | | - Stefan Scheu
- Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.,J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Animal Ecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Bernhard Schmid
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | | | - Vicky Temperton
- Leuphana University Lüneburg, Institute of Ecology, Universitätsallee 1, Lüneburg, Germany
| | - Teja Tscharntke
- Agroecology, Dept. of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Winfried Voigt
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Weisser
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Wilcke
- Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Christian Wirth
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Life Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
van der Plas F. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in naturally assembled communities. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2019; 94:1220-1245. [PMID: 30724447 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2018] [Revised: 01/08/2019] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Approximately 25 years ago, ecologists became increasingly interested in the question of whether ongoing biodiversity loss matters for the functioning of ecosystems. As such, a new ecological subfield on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (BEF) was born. This subfield was initially dominated by theoretical studies and by experiments in which biodiversity was manipulated, and responses of ecosystem functions such as biomass production, decomposition rates, carbon sequestration, trophic interactions and pollination were assessed. More recently, an increasing number of studies have investigated BEF relationships in non-manipulated ecosystems, but reviews synthesizing our knowledge on the importance of real-world biodiversity are still largely missing. I performed a systematic review in order to assess how biodiversity drives ecosystem functioning in both terrestrial and aquatic, naturally assembled communities, and on how important biodiversity is compared to other factors, including other aspects of community composition and abiotic conditions. The outcomes of 258 published studies, which reported 726 BEF relationships, revealed that in many cases, biodiversity promotes average biomass production and its temporal stability, and pollination success. For decomposition rates and ecosystem multifunctionality, positive effects of biodiversity outnumbered negative effects, but neutral relationships were even more common. Similarly, negative effects of prey biodiversity on pathogen and herbivore damage outnumbered positive effects, but were less common than neutral relationships. Finally, there was no evidence that biodiversity is related to soil carbon storage. Most BEF studies focused on the effects of taxonomic diversity, however, metrics of functional diversity were generally stronger predictors of ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, in most studies, abiotic factors and functional composition (e.g. the presence of a certain functional group) were stronger drivers of ecosystem functioning than biodiversity per se. While experiments suggest that positive biodiversity effects become stronger at larger spatial scales, in naturally assembled communities this idea is too poorly studied to draw general conclusions. In summary, a high biodiversity in naturally assembled communities positively drives various ecosystem functions. At the same time, the strength and direction of these effects vary highly among studies, and factors other than biodiversity can be even more important in driving ecosystem functioning. Thus, to promote those ecosystem functions that underpin human well-being, conservation should not only promote biodiversity per se, but also the abiotic conditions favouring species with suitable trait combinations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fons van der Plas
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| |
Collapse
|