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.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Biodiversity enhances ecosystem reliability

Abstract

Biodiversity may represent a form of biological insurance against the loss or poor performance of selected species1. If this is the case, then communities with larger numbers of species should be more predictable with respect to properties such as local biomass2. That is, larger numbers of species should enhance ecosystem reliability, where reliability refers to the probability that a system will provide a consistent level of performance over a given unit of time3. The validity of this hypothesis has important ecological, management and economic implications given the large-scale substitution of diverse natural ecosystems with less diverse managed systems4. No experimental evidence, however, has supported this hypothesis5. To test this hypothesis we established replicated microbial microcosms with varying numbers of species per functional group. We found that as the number of species per functional group increased, replicate communities were more consistent in biomass and density measures. These results suggest that redundancy (in the sense of having multiple species per functional group6,7,8) is a valuable commodity, and that the provision of adequate redundancy may be one reason for preserving biodiversity.

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

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Experimental design.
Figure 2: Ecosystem reliability and S/F.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Folke, C., Holling, C. S. & Perrings, C. Biological diversity, ecosystems and the human scale. Ecol. Applic. 6, 1018–1024 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. May, R. M. Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, (1974)).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Naeem, S. Species redundancy and ecosystem reliability. Cons. Biol. (in the press).

  4. Imhoff, M. L. Mapping human impacts on the global biosphere. BioScience 44, 598 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Heywood, V. H. Global Biodiversity Assessment (UNEP and Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, (1995)).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gitay, H., Bastow, W. & Lee, W. G. Species redundancy: a redundant concept? J. Ecol. 84, 121–124 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Walker, B. H. Biological diversity and ecological redundancy. Cons. Biol. 6, 18–23 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lawton, J. H. & Brown, V. K. in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function (eds Schulze, E. D. & Mooney, H. A.) 255–270 (Springer, New York, (1993)).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Tilman, D. Biodiversity: population versus ecosystem stability. Ecology 77, 350–363 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Cowling, R. M., Mustart, P. J., Laurie, H. & Richards, M. B. Species diversity; functional diversity and functional redundancy in fynbos communities. S. Afr. J. Sci. 90, 333–337 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Beare, M. H., Coleman, D. C., Crossley, D. A., Hendrix, P. F. & Odum, E. P. Ahierarchical approach to evaluating the significance of soil biodiversity to biogeochemical cycling. Plant Soil 170, 5–122 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Feinsinger, P., Wolfe, J. A. & Swarm, L. A. Island ecology: reduced hummingbird diversity and the pollination of plants, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. Ecology 63, 494–506 (1982).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Körner, C. in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (eds Schulze, E.-D. & Mooney, H. A.) 117–139 (Springer, Berlin, (1993)).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Christiansen, N. L. J. in The Ecological Basis of Conservation (eds Pickett, S. T. A., Ostfeld, R. S., Schachak, M. & Likens, G. E.) 167–186 (Chapman and Hall, New York, (1997)).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  15. Baruch, Z. et al. in Biodiversity and Savanna Ecosystem Processes Vol. 121(eds Solbrig, O. T., Medina, E. & Silva, J. F.) 176–194 (Springer, Berlin, (1996)).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Harte, J. & Kinzig, A. P. Mutualism and competition between plants and decomposers: implications for nutrient allocation in ecosystems. Am. Nat. 141, 829–846 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Drake, J. A. Community-assembly mechanics and the structure of an experimental species ensemble. Am. Nat. 137, 1–26 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Power, M. E. et al. Challenges in the quest for keystones. BioScience 46, 609–620 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Daily, G. C. Nature's Services (Island Press, Washington DC, (1997)).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Costanza, R. et al. The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253–260 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Lawler, S. P. & Morin, P. J. Food web architecture and population dynamics in laboratory microcosms of protists. Am. Nat. 141, 675–686 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Wetzel, R. G. & Likens, G. E. Limnological Analyses (Springer, Berlin, Germany, (1991)).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  23. Porter, K. G. & Feig, Y. S. The use of DAPI for identifying and counting aquatic microflora. Limnol. Oceanogr. 25, 943–948 (1980).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank J. McGrady-Steed, P. Morin, B. Sterner, D. Tilman and S. Tjossem for critical evaluations of this work, and the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship and NSF for support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shahid Naeem.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Naeem, S., Li, S. Biodiversity enhances ecosystem reliability. Nature 390, 507–509 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/37348

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/37348

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

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