Effects of biodiversity on the functioning of trophic groups and ecosystems

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, accelerating rates of species extinction have prompted an increasing number of studies to reduce species diversity experimentally and examine how this alters

the efficiency by which communities capture resources and convert those into biomass1,2. So far, the generality of patterns and processes observed in individual studies have been the

subjects of considerable debate3,4,5,6,7. Here we present a formal meta-analysis of studies that have experimentally manipulated species diversity to examine how it affects the functioning

of numerous trophic groups in multiple types of ecosystem. We show that the average effect of decreasing species richness is to decrease the abundance or biomass of the focal trophic group,

leading to less complete depletion of resources used by that group. At the same time, analyses reveal that the standing stock of, and resource depletion by, the most species-rich polyculture

tends to be no different from that of the single most productive species used in an experiment. Of the known mechanisms that might explain these trends, results are most consistent with

what is called the ‘sampling effect’, which occurs when diverse communities are more likely to contain and become dominated by the most productive species. Whether this mechanism is

widespread in natural communities is currently controversial. Patterns we report are remarkably consistent for four different trophic groups (producers, herbivores, detritivores and

predators) and two major ecosystem types (aquatic and terrestrial). Collectively, our analyses suggest that the average species loss does indeed affect the functioning of a wide variety of

organisms and ecosystems, but the magnitude of these effects is ultimately determined by the identity of species that are going extinct. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This

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RICHNESS IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING THAN SPECIES TURNOVER ALONG AN ELEVATIONAL GRADIENT Article 20 September 2021 THE RESULTS OF BIODIVERSITY–ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING

EXPERIMENTS ARE REALISTIC Article 24 August 2020 PLANT DIVERSITY ENHANCES ECOSYSTEM MULTIFUNCTIONALITY VIA MULTITROPHIC DIVERSITY Article 29 August 2024 REFERENCES * Loreau, M. et al.

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Ris-Lambers, J. Levine, J. Melack, B. Starzomski, D. Tilman and D. Wardle for comments that improved this manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the US National Science

Foundation and is a product of the BioMERGE diversity-synthesis network. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of

California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA Bradley J. Cardinale * Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada

Diane S. Srivastava * Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, Virginia, 23062, USA J. Emmett Duffy * Department of Biology, Duke University,

Durham, North Carolina, 27708, USA Justin P. Wright * Department of Zoology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, 43015, USA Amy L. Downing * Institute of Integrative & Comparative

Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK Mahesh Sankaran * Comparative Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT

Mahesh Sankaran * Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, 10027, USA Claire Jouseau Authors * Bradley J. Cardinale View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Diane S. Srivastava View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * J.

Emmett Duffy View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Justin P. Wright View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * Amy L. Downing View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Mahesh Sankaran View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Claire Jouseau View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Bradley J.

Cardinale. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES Summary of studies reviewed and selected for meta-analysis. (DOC 155 kb) SUPPLEMENTARY DATA Dataset used for meta-analysis. (XLS 175 kb) RIGHTS

AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Cardinale, B., Srivastava, D., Emmett Duffy, J. _et al._ Effects of biodiversity on the functioning of trophic

groups and ecosystems. _Nature_ 443, 989–992 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05202 Download citation * Received: 08 July 2006 * Accepted: 05 September 2006 * Issue Date: 26 October

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