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Local loss and spatial homogenization of plant diversity reduce ecosystem multifunctionality

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 2, pages 50–56 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Biodiversity is declining in many local communities while also becoming increasingly homogenized across space. Experiments show that local plant species loss reduces ecosystem functioning and services, but the role of spatial homogenization of community composition and the potential interaction between diversity at different scales in maintaining ecosystem functioning remains unclear, especially when many functions are considered (ecosystem multifunctionality). We present an analysis of eight ecosystem functions measured in 65 grasslands worldwide. We find that more diverse grasslands—those with both species-rich local communities (α-diversity) and large compositional differences among localities (β-diversity)—had higher levels of multifunctionality. Moreover, α- and β-diversity synergistically affected multifunctionality, with higher levels of diversity at one scale amplifying the contribution to ecological functions at the other scale. The identity of species influencing ecosystem functioning differed among functions and across local communities, explaining why more diverse grasslands maintained greater functionality when more functions and localities were considered. These results were robust to variation in environmental drivers. Our findings reveal that plant diversity, at both local and landscape scales, contributes to the maintenance of multiple ecosystem services provided by grasslands. Preserving ecosystem functioning therefore requires conservation of biodiversity both within and among ecological communities.

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Fig. 1: Local species richness (\(\bar{{\boldsymbol{\alpha }}}\)-diversity) and community dissimilarity (β-diversity) interact to affect average multifunctionality.
Fig. 2: Simulating reduced ecological interactions between local communities did not influence the relationships of plant diversity with average multifunctionality.
Fig. 3: Dissimilarity in functionally important species contributes to ecosystem multifunctionality.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 298935 to Y.H. (with A.H. and E.W.S.). This work was generated using data from the Nutrient Network (http://www.nutnet.org) experiment, funded at the site scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) to E.T.B. and E.W.S, and from the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) programme (NSF-DEB-1234162), and the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data, and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. We thank R. S. L. Veiga for suggestions that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Yann Hautier

  2. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Forest Isbell, Elizabeth T. Borer, Eric W. Seabloom & Eric M. Lind

  3. Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research – UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    W. Stanley Harpole, Anu Eskelinen & Risto Virtanen

  4. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    W. Stanley Harpole, Anu Eskelinen & Risto Virtanen

  5. Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108, Halle (Saale), Germany

    W. Stanley Harpole

  6. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Andrew S. MacDougall

  7. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

    Carly J. Stevens

  8. Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Peter B. Adler

  9. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, UNMdP, CONICET, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Juan Alberti, Pedro Daleo, Oscar Iribarne & Jesus Pascual

  10. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Box 354115, Seattle, WA, 98195-4115, USA

    Jonathan D. Bakker

  11. Department of Plant Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Lars A. Brudvig

  12. School of Natural Sciences, Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Yvonne M. Buckley

  13. University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada

    Marc Cadotte

  14. Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Maria C. Caldeira

  15. IFEVA-CONICET, Facultad de Agronomia, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martin 4453, 1417, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Enrique J. Chaneton & Laura Yahdjian

  16. Department of Ecology, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, 510275, Guangzhou, China

    Chengjin Chu

  17. Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia

    Christopher R. Dickman & Glenda M. Wardle

  18. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia

    John M. Dwyer

  19. CSIRO Land & Water, EcoSciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland, 4102, Australia

    John M. Dwyer

  20. Ecology & Genetics, University of Oulu, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Anu Eskelinen & Risto Virtanen

  21. USDA-ARS, Grassland Soil and Water Lab, 808 E Blackland Road, Temple, TX, 76502, USA

    Philip A. Fay

  22. School of Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Jennifer Firn

  23. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Nicole Hagenah & Kevin P. Kirkman

  24. South African Environmental Network (SAEON), Grasslands, Forests and Wetlands Node, Queen Elizabeth Park, 1 Peter Brown Drive, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Nicole Hagenah

  25. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Helmut Hillebrand

  26. School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Johannes M. H. Knops

  27. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD, USA

    Kimberly J. La Pierre

  28. Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40546-0091, USA

    Rebecca L. McCulley

  29. Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3083, Victoria, Australia

    John W. Morgan

  30. Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai 40, 51005, Tartu, Estonia

    Meelis Pärtel

  31. Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, 2640, Australia

    Jodi N. Price

  32. CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag 5, Wembley, Western Australia, 6913, Australia

    Suzanne M. Prober

  33. Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Anita C. Risch

  34. School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Mahesh Sankaran

  35. National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bangalore, 560065, India

    Mahesh Sankaran

  36. Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Martin Schuetz

  37. School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia, 6150, Australia

    Rachel J. Standish

  38. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RB, UK

    Andy Hector

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  1. Yann Hautier
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Contributions

Y.H., F.I. and A.H. developed and framed research questions. Y.H., F.I. and A.H. analysed the data and wrote the paper with contributions and input from all authors. E.T.B., E.W.S., K.L.P. and J.D.B. contributed to data analysis. E.W.S., E.T.B., W.S.H. and E.M.L. are Nutrient Network coordinators. All authors collected data used in this analysis. The author contribution matrix is provided as Supplementary Table 6.

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Correspondence to Yann Hautier.

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Hautier, Y., Isbell, F., Borer, E.T. et al. Local loss and spatial homogenization of plant diversity reduce ecosystem multifunctionality. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 50–56 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0395-0

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