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Effects of species and functional group loss on island ecosystem properties

Nature volume 435, pages 806–810 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Considerable recent attention has focused on predicting how the losses of species and functional groups influence ecosystem properties1,2, but the extent to which these effects vary among ecosystems remains poorly understood3,4. Island systems have considerable scope for studying how biotic and abiotic factors influence processes in different ecosystems, because they enable the simultaneous study of large numbers of independent replicate systems at ecologically meaningful spatial scales5,6,7. We studied a group of 30 islands in northern Sweden, for which island size determined disturbance history, and therefore vegetation successional stage and biotic and abiotic ecosystem properties. On each island we conducted a seven-year study that involved experimental removals of combinations of both plant functional groups and plant species. We show that although losses of functional groups and species often impaired key ecosystem processes, these effects were highly context-dependent and strongly influenced by island size. Our study provides evidence that the consequences of biotic loss for ecosystem functioning vary greatly among ecosystems and depend on the specific abiotic and biotic attributes of the system.

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Figure 1: The influence of shrub species removals on total shrub cover in island ecosystems.
Figure 2: Interactive effects of island size and removals of functional groups or species on selected belowground properties after seven years.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Sundberg, P. Bellingham, K. Svarvisdottir, C. Maley, N. Anthes, K. Altgott, N. Rodda and K. Orwin for field assistance at various stages of this work; H. Quirk, M. Karlsson and K. Orwin for laboratory assistance; K. Johansson for help with data management; D. Peltzer for assistance with statistics; and T. H. De Luca, T. Fukami, M.-C. Nilsson and D. Peltzer for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. This work was funded by the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council (NFR) and Vetenskapsrådet (VR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S901-83, Umeå, Sweden

    David A. Wardle & Olle Zackrisson

  2. Landcare Research, PO Box 69, 8152, Lincoln, New Zealand

    David A. Wardle

Authors
  1. David A. Wardle
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  2. Olle Zackrisson
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Correspondence to David A. Wardle.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Discussion

This explores the issue of the extent to which the vegetation data obtained at the end of the experiment (after seven years) is explicable simply in terms of legacy effects created by the experimental removals at the beginning of the experiment. (DOC 21 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

This complements the Supplementary Discussion by providing data on productivity and amounts of vegetation removed from plots for dwarf shrub vegetation on islands of three size classes. (DOC 23 kb)

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Wardle, D., Zackrisson, O. Effects of species and functional group loss on island ecosystem properties. Nature 435, 806–810 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03611

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