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Functional trait diversity maximizes ecosystem multifunctionality

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, Article number: 0132 (2017) Cite this article

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Abstract

Understanding the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has been a core ecological research topic over the past decades. Although a key hypothesis is that the diversity of functional traits determines ecosystem functioning, we do not know how much trait diversity is needed to maintain multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously (multifunctionality). Here, we uncovered a scaling relationship between the abundance distribution of two key plant functional traits (specific leaf area, maximum plant height) and multifunctionality in 124 dryland plant communities spread over all continents except Antarctica. For each trait, we found a strong empirical relationship between the skewness and the kurtosis of the trait distributions that cannot be explained by chance. This relationship predicted a strikingly high trait diversity within dryland plant communities, which was associated with a local maximization of multifunctionality. Skewness and kurtosis had a much stronger impact on multifunctionality than other important multifunctionality drivers such as species richness and aridity. The scaling relationship identified here quantifies how much trait diversity is required to maximize multifunctionality locally. Trait distributions can be used to predict the functional consequences of biodiversity loss in terrestrial ecosystems.

Global threats to biodiversity have motivated ecologists to better understand the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning1 (BEF). Pioneering BEF experiments conducted in grasslands have shown a positive effect of species richness on ecosystem functioning2,3, which has been later confirmed in many ecosystems4–7. However, there is a general consensus that it is not only the number of species per se that influences ecosystem functioning, but also the diversity and the abundance of their functional traits within communities8–10. As functional traits relate to how species acquire, share and conserve resources11, they are often invoked to explain how species assemble within communities12–14 and impact ecosystem functioning8–10,15.

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Figure 1: Map of the 124 sampled drylands used in this study.
Figure 2: SKR represented in the Cullen and Frey graph37.
Figure 3: Observed SKRs and deviation of from null expectations.
Figure 4: Effect of abiotic and biotic factors on ecosystem multifunctionality.
Figure 5: Scaling relationship between the empirical SKRs and ecosystem multifunctionality.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement 242658 (BIOCOM). Y.L.B.P was supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship within the European programme Horizon 2020 (DRYFUN project 656035). N.G. was support by the AgreenSkills+ fellowship programme, which has received funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement FP7-609398 (AgreenSkills+ contract). F.T.M. acknowledges support from the ERC (grant agreement 647038; BIODESERT). N.J.G. was supported by the US NSF DEB 1257625, NSF DEB 1144055 and NSF DEB 1136644. M.B. was supported by an FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (ref. AP2010-0759). We are very grateful to L. Börger, D. Eldridge, M. García-Gómez, V. Maire, M. Robson, H. Saiz and C. Violle for providing comments on previous versions of the manuscript, and to C. Mañá for explaining the statistical background on the skewness–kurtosis relationship.

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Author notes

  1. Nicolas Gross, Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet and Pierre Liancourt: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/ Tulipán s/n, Móstoles, 28933, Spain

    Nicolas Gross, Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Miguel Berdugo & Fernando T. Maestre

  2. INRA, USC1339 Chizé (CEBC), Villiers en Bois, F-79360, France

    Nicolas Gross

  3. Centre d’étude biologique de Chizé, CNRS - Université La Rochelle (UMR 7372), Villiers en Bois, F-79360, France

    Nicolas Gross

  4. Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, Trebon, 379 82, Czech Republic

    Pierre Liancourt

  5. Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, Vermont, USA

    Nicholas J. Gotelli

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Contributions

N.G., Y.L.B.P. and P.L. developed the original idea. F.T.M. designed and collected the ‘drylands’ data set. N.G., Y.L.B.P., N.J.G. and M.B. conducted the statistical analyses. N.G., Y.L.B.P. and P.L. wrote the article, with major contributions from F.T.M., M.B. and N.J.G.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nicolas Gross, Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet or Pierre Liancourt.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–5; Supplementary References; Supplementary Tables 1–3; Supplementary Figures 1–3 (PDF 2964 kb)

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Gross, N., Bagousse-Pinguet, Y., Liancourt, P. et al. Functional trait diversity maximizes ecosystem multifunctionality. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0132 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0132

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