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High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Isbell, F; Calcagno, V; Hector, A; Connolly, J; Harpole, WS; Reich, PB; Scherer-Lorenzen, M; Schmid, B; Tilman, D; van Ruijven, J; Weigelt, A ...
Published in: Nature
August 2011

Biodiversity is rapidly declining worldwide, and there is consensus that this can decrease ecosystem functioning and services. It remains unclear, though, whether few or many of the species in an ecosystem are needed to sustain the provisioning of ecosystem services. It has been hypothesized that most species would promote ecosystem services if many times, places, functions and environmental changes were considered; however, no previous study has considered all of these factors together. Here we show that 84% of the 147 grassland plant species studied in 17 biodiversity experiments promoted ecosystem functioning at least once. Different species promoted ecosystem functioning during different years, at different places, for different functions and under different environmental change scenarios. Furthermore, the species needed to provide one function during multiple years were not the same as those needed to provide multiple functions within one year. Our results indicate that even more species will be needed to maintain ecosystem functioning and services than previously suggested by studies that have either (1) considered only the number of species needed to promote one function under one set of environmental conditions, or (2) separately considered the importance of biodiversity for providing ecosystem functioning across multiple years, places, functions or environmental change scenarios. Therefore, although species may appear functionally redundant when one function is considered under one set of environmental conditions, many species are needed to maintain multiple functions at multiple times and places in a changing world.

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Published In

Nature

DOI

EISSN

1476-4687

ISSN

0028-0836

Publication Date

August 2011

Volume

477

Issue

7363

Start / End Page

199 / 202

Related Subject Headings

  • Species Specificity
  • Poaceae
  • Plants
  • Plant Physiological Phenomena
  • Plant Development
  • Models, Biological
  • General Science & Technology
  • Extinction, Biological
  • Ecosystem
  • Ecology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
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Isbell, F., Calcagno, V., Hector, A., Connolly, J., Harpole, W. S., Reich, P. B., … Loreau, M. (2011). High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services. Nature, 477(7363), 199–202. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10282
Isbell, Forest, Vincent Calcagno, Andy Hector, John Connolly, W Stanley Harpole, Peter B. Reich, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, et al. “High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services.Nature 477, no. 7363 (August 2011): 199–202. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10282.
Isbell F, Calcagno V, Hector A, Connolly J, Harpole WS, Reich PB, et al. High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services. Nature. 2011 Aug;477(7363):199–202.
Isbell, Forest, et al. “High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services.Nature, vol. 477, no. 7363, Aug. 2011, pp. 199–202. Epmc, doi:10.1038/nature10282.
Isbell F, Calcagno V, Hector A, Connolly J, Harpole WS, Reich PB, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Schmid B, Tilman D, van Ruijven J, Weigelt A, Wilsey BJ, Zavaleta ES, Loreau M. High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services. Nature. 2011 Aug;477(7363):199–202.
Journal cover image

Published In

Nature

DOI

EISSN

1476-4687

ISSN

0028-0836

Publication Date

August 2011

Volume

477

Issue

7363

Start / End Page

199 / 202

Related Subject Headings

  • Species Specificity
  • Poaceae
  • Plants
  • Plant Physiological Phenomena
  • Plant Development
  • Models, Biological
  • General Science & Technology
  • Extinction, Biological
  • Ecosystem
  • Ecology