Editor's Summary

28 June 2006

In and out to graze

The influence of dispersal processes such as immigration and emigration of species on the environmental degradation of an ecosystem has been studied in an experimental 'metacommunity' made up of seagrass-grazing crustaceans. Rather than the usual enclosed system, this experiment involved a community of plants and animals separated physically but linked by dispersals. Some of the findings are surprising: for instance, allowing grazers to move among and select the patches they graze on reduced the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem productivity. But the overall conclusion is that preserving a variety of both habitats and species can stabilize ecosystem services through time.

Letter: Diversity and dispersal interactively affect predictability of ecosystem function

Kristin E. France and J. Emmett Duffy

doi:10.1038/nature04729

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