Abstract
The effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning generally increase over time, but the underlying processes remain unclear. Using 26 long-term grassland and forest experimental ecosystems, we demonstrate that biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships strengthen mainly by greater increases in functioning in high-diversity communities in grasslands and forests. In grasslands, biodiversity effects also strengthen due to decreases in functioning in low-diversity communities. Contrasting trends across grasslands are associated with differences in soil characteristics.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
08 August 2019
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
References
Isbell, F. et al. Nature 546, 65–72 (2017).
Tilman, D., Isbell, F. & Cowles, J. M. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 45, 471–493 (2014).
Hooper, D. U. et al. Ecol. Monogr. 75, 3–35 (2005).
Balvanera, P. et al. Ecol. Lett. 9, 1146–1156 (2006).
Reich, P. B. et al. Science 336, 589–592 (2012).
Cardinale, B. J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 18123–18128 (2007).
Ewel, J. J., Celis, G. & Schreeg, L. Biotropica 47, 162–171 (2015).
Flombaum, P. & Sala, O. E. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 6087–6090 (2008).
Eisenhauer, N. et al. J. Veg. Sci. 27, 1061–1070 (2016).
Grace, J. B. et al. Nature 529, 390–393 (2016).
Hautier, Y. et al. Nature 508, 521–525 (2014).
Marquard, E. et al. PLoS ONE 8, e75599 (2013).
Fridley, J. D. Oecologia 132, 271–277 (2002).
Boyden, S., Binkley, D. & Senock, R. Ecology 86, 992–1001 (2005).
Forrester, D. I. & Bauhus, J. Curr. Forest. Rep. 2, 45–61 (2016).
Newbold, T. et al. Nature 520, 45–50 (2015).
Urban, M. C. Science 348, 571–573 (2015).
Paquette, A. & Messier, C. Front. Ecol. Environ. 8, 27–34 (2010).
Tilman, D. et al. Science 292, 281–284 (2001).
Fargione, J. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 274, 871–876 (2007).
De Deyn, G. B. Oikos 126, 497–507 (2017).
Craven, D. et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 371, 1–8 (2016).
Eriksson, O. & Ehrlén, J. Oecologia 91, 360–364 (1992).
Marquard, E. et al. J. Ecol. 97, 696–704 (2009).
Williams, L. J., Paquette, A., Cavender-Bares, J., Messier, C. & Reich, P. B. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 1, 1–7 (2017).
Binkley, D., Senock, R., Bird, S. & Cole, T. G. Forest Ecol. Manag. 182, 93–102 (2003).
Ewel, J. J. & Mazzarino, M. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 18836–18841 (2008).
Potvin, C. & Dutilleul, P. Ecology 90, 321–327 (2009).
R Development Core Team R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, 2015).
Hengl, T. et al. PLoS ONE 12, e0169748 (2017).
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the German Research Foundation through the Emmy Noether research group (Ei 862/2), a European Research Council starting grant (grant agreement 677232) provided to N.E. and financial support from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (FZT 118). The Jena Experiment is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (FOR 1451). Support for BioCON came from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research (DEB-9411972, DEB-0080382, DEB-0620652 and DEB-1234162), Biocomplexity Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles (DEB-0322057), Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology (DEB-0716587, DEB-1242531) and Ecosystem Sciences (NSF DEB- 1120064) Programs; as well as the US Department of Energy Programs for Ecosystem Research (DE-FG02-96ER62291) and National Institute for Climatic Change Research (DE-FC02-06ER64158). N.R.G.-R. thanks D. Binkley, A. Weigelt and E. De Luca for contributing data, S. Bilodeau-Gauthier for support with the database and P. Keil for help with data analysis.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
N.E. conceived the idea. N.E. and N.R.G.-R. developed the idea. A.H., B.W., C.Palmborg, C.Potvin, C.R., D.I.F., D.P., D.T., F.M., H.A., H.E.E., J.J.E., J.J., J.K., J.A.P., J.v.R. and P.B.R. contributed experimental data. N.R.G.-R. assembled the data. N.R.G.-R. and D.C. analysed the data with input from F.I., J.K. and A.H. N.R.G.-R. wrote the paper with substantial input from all authors.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Supplementary Information
Supplementary figures, tables, methods, references and code.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guerrero-Ramírez, N.R., Craven, D., Reich, P.B. et al. Diversity-dependent temporal divergence of ecosystem functioning in experimental ecosystems. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 1639–1642 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0325-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0325-1
This article is cited by
-
Effects of plant diversity on productivity strengthen over time due to trait-dependent shifts in species overyielding
Nature Communications (2024)
-
Restoration of insect communities after land use change is shaped by plant diversity: a case study on carabid beetles (Carabidae)
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Reconsidering functional redundancy in biodiversity research
npj Biodiversity (2023)
-
Early positive spatial selection effects of beta-diversity on ecosystem functioning
Landscape Ecology (2023)
-
Biodiversity–stability relationships strengthen over time in a long-term grassland experiment
Nature Communications (2022)