Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Ecology

Price put on biodiversity

Nature volume 412, pages 34–36 (2001)Cite this article

The greater the plant diversity in an ecosystem, the greater the ecosystem's productivity. A new analysis indicates that the higher productivity results from complementary patterns of species resource use.

Human activities are drastically altering Earth's biodiversity. To get a handle on what the consequences might be, ecologists have been busily carrying out experiments. But interpreting such experiments has been confounded by the possible operation of two different causal mechanisms, with contrasting implications. This matter is tackled by Loreau and Hector on page 72 of this issue1. They have devised a way of teasing apart the two effects, drawing upon a formulation — the Price equation — used in evolutionary genetics, and have tested their approach on a large body of data from European grasslands.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Examples of species complementarity and the sampling effect.

References

  1. Loreau, M. & Hector, A. Nature 412, 72–76 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Chapin, F. S. et al. Nature 405, 234–242 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sala, O. E. et al. Science 287, 1770–1774 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Tilman, D., Wedin, D. & Knops, J. Nature 379, 718–720 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tilman, D. et al. Science 277, 1300–1302 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hector, A. et al. Science 286, 1123–1127 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Tilman, D., Lehman, C. & Thomson, K. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94, 1857–1861 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Huston, M. A. Oecologia 110, 449–460 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Huston, M. A. et al. Science 289, 1255 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Orians, G. H. & Solbrig, O. T. Am. Nat. 111, 677–690 (1977).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Frank, S. A. J. Theor. Biol. 175, 373–388 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Reich, P. et al. Nature 410, 809–812 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. MacArthur, R. Geographical Ecology: Patterns in the Distribution of Species (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and IFEVA, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires-CONICET, Avenida San Martín 4453, Buenos Aires, C1417 DSQ, Argentina

    Osvaldo E. Sala

Authors
  1. Osvaldo E. Sala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Osvaldo E. Sala.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sala, O. Price put on biodiversity. Nature 412, 34–36 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35083676

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35083676

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing