108 results on '"Meyer, Sebastian T."'
Search Results
102. Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought
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Isbell, Forest, Manning, Pete, Connolly, John, Bruelheide, Helge, Ebeling, Anne, Roscher, Christiane, Van Ruijven, Jasper, Weigelt, Alexandra, Wilsey, Brian, Beierkuhnlein, Carl, De Luca, Enrica, Griffin, John N., Hautier, Yann, Hector, Andy, Jentsch, Anke, Kreyling, Jürgen, Lanta, Vojtech, Loreau, Michel, Meyer, Sebastian T., Mori, Akira S., Naeem, Shahid, Palmborg, Cecilia, Polley, H. Wayne, Reich, Peter B., Schmid, Bernhard, Siebenkäs, Alrun, Seabloom, Eric, Thakur, Madhav P., Tilman, David, Vogel, Anja, Eisenhauer, Nico, and Craven, Dylan
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2. Zero hunger ,13. Climate action ,15. Life on land ,580 Plants (Botany) - Abstract
Global change drivers are rapidly altering resource availability and biodiversity. While there is consensus that greater biodiversity increases the functioning of ecosystems, the extent to which biodiversity buffers ecosystem productivity in response to changes in resource availability remains unclear. We use data from 16 grassland experiments across North America and Europe that manipulated plant species richness and one of two essential resources—soil nutrients or water—to assess the direction and strength of the interaction between plant diversity and resource alteration on above-ground productivity and net biodiversity, complementarity, and selection effects. Despite strong increases in productivity with nutrient addition and decreases in productivity with drought, we found that resource alterations did not alter biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships. Our results suggest that these relationships are largely determined by increases in complementarity effects along plant species richness gradients. Although nutrient addition reduced complementarity effects at high diversity, this appears to be due to high biomass in monocultures under nutrient enrichment. Our results indicate that diversity and the complementarity of species are important regulators of grassland ecosystem productivity, regardless of changes in other drivers of ecosystem function.
103. A comparison of the strength of biodiversity effects across multiple functions
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Allan, Eric, Weisser, Wolfgang W., Fischer, Markus, Schulze, Ernst-Detlef, Weigelt, Alexandra, Roscher, Christiane, Baade, Jussi, Barnard, Romain L., Beßler, Holger, Buchmann, Nina, Ebeling, Anne, Eisenhauer, Nico, Engels, Christof, Fergus, Alexander J.F., Gleixner, Gerd, Gubsch, Marlén, Halle, Stefan, Klein, Alexandra M., Kertscher, Ilona, Kuu, Annely, Lange, Markus, Roux, Xavier, Meyer, Sebastian T., Migunova, Varvara D., Milcu, Alexandru, Niklaus, Pascal A., Oelmann, Yvonne, Pašalić, Esther, Petermann, Jana S., Poly, Franck, Rottstock, Tanja, Sabais, Alexander C. W., Scherber, Christoph, Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael, Scheu, Stefan, Steinbeiss, Sibylle, Schwichtenberg, Guido, Temperton, Vicky, Tscharntke, Teja, Voigt, Winfried, Wilcke, Wolfgang, Wirth, Christian, and Schmid, Bernhard
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570 Life sciences ,biology ,590 Animals (Zoology) ,15. Life on land ,580 Plants (Botany) - Abstract
In order to predict which ecosystem functions are most at risk from biodiversity loss, meta-analyses have generalised results from biodiversity experiments over different sites and ecosystem types. In contrast, comparing the strength of biodiversity effects across a large number of ecosystem processes measured in a single experiment permits more direct comparisons. Here, we present an analysis of 418 separate measures of 38 ecosystem processes. Overall, 45 % of processes were significantly affected by plant species richness, suggesting that, while diversity affects a large number of processes not all respond to biodiversity. We therefore compared the strength of plant diversity effects between different categories of ecosystem processes, grouping processes according to the year of measurement, their biogeochemical cycle, trophic level and compartment (above- or belowground) and according to whether they were measures of biodiversity or other ecosystem processes, biotic or abiotic and static or dynamic. Overall, and for several individual processes, we found that biodiversity effects became stronger over time. Measures of the carbon cycle were also affected more strongly by plant species richness than were the measures associated with the nitrogen cycle. Further, we found greater plant species richness effects on measures of biodiversity than on other processes. The differential effects of plant diversity on the various types of ecosystem processes indicate that future research and political effort should shift from a general debate about whether biodiversity loss impairs ecosystem functions to focussing on the specific functions of interest and ways to preserve them individually or in combination.
104. Transferring biodiversity-ecosystem function research to the management of ‘real-world’ ecosystems
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Manning, Peter, Loos, Jacqueline, Barnes, Andrew D., Batáry, Péter, Bianchi, Felix J.J.A., Buchmann, Nina, De Deyn, Gerlinde B., Ebeling, Anne, Eisenhauer, Nico, Fischer, Markus, Fründ, Jochen, Grass, Ingo, Isselstein, Johannes, Jochum, Malte, Klein, Alexandra M., Klingenberg, Esther O.F., Landis, Douglas A., Lepš, Jan, Lindborg, Regina, Meyer, Sebastian T., Temperton, Vicky M., Westphal, Catrin, and Tscharntke, Teja
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2. Zero hunger ,13. Climate action ,15. Life on land ,580 Plants (Botany) - Abstract
Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research grew rapidly following concerns that biodiversity loss would negatively affect ecosystem functions and the ecosystem services they underpin. However, despite evidence that biodiversity strongly affects ecosystem functioning, the influence of BEF research upon policy and the management of ‘real-world’ ecosystems, i.e., semi-natural habitats and agroecosystems, has been limited. Here, we address this issue by classifying BEF research into three clusters based on the degree of human control over species composition and the spatial scale, in terms of grain, of the study, and discussing how the research of each cluster is best suited to inform particular fields of ecosystem management. Research in the first cluster, small-grain highly controlled studies, is best able to provide general insights into mechanisms and to inform the management of species-poor and highly managed systems such as croplands, plantations, and the restoration of heavily degraded ecosystems. Research from the second cluster, small-grain observational studies, and species removal and addition studies, may allow for direct predictions of the impacts of species loss in specific semi-natural ecosystems. Research in the third cluster, large-grain uncontrolled studies, may best inform landscape-scale management and national-scale policy. We discuss barriers to transfer within each cluster and suggest how new research and knowledge exchange mechanisms may overcome these challenges. To meet the potential for BEF research to address global challenges, we recommend transdisciplinary research that goes beyond these current clusters and considers the social-ecological context of the ecosystems in which BEF knowledge is generated. This requires recognizing the social and economic value of biodiversity for ecosystem services at scales, and in units, that matter to land managers and policy makers.
105. Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning in a 15-year grassland experiment: Patterns, mechanisms, and open questions
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Weisser, Wolfgang W., Roscher, Christiane, Meyer, Sebastian T., Ebeling, Anne, Luo, Guangjuan, Allan, Eric, Bessler, Holger, Barnard, Romain L., Buchmann, Nina, Buscot, François, Engels, Christof, Fischer, Christine, Fischer, Markus, Gessler, Arthur, Gleixner, Gerd, Halle, Stefan, Hildebrandt, Anke, Hillebrand, Helmut, De Kroon, Hans, Lange, Markus, Leimer, Sophia, Roux, Xavier Le, Milcu, Alexandru, Mommer, Liesje, Niklaus, Pascal A., Oelmann, Yvonne, Proulx, Raphael, Roy, Jacques, Scherber, Christoph, Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael, Scheu, Stefan, Tscharntke, Teja, Wachendorf, Michael, Wagg, Cameron, Weigelt, Alexandra, Wilcke, Wolfgang, Wirth, Christian, Schulze, Ernst-Detlef, Schmid, Bernhard, and Eisenhauer, Nico
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2. Zero hunger ,13. Climate action ,food and beverages ,15. Life on land ,580 Plants (Botany) ,7. Clean energy - Abstract
In the past two decades, a large number of studies have investigated the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, most of which focussed on a limited set of ecosystem variables. The Jena Experiment was set up in 2002 to investigate the effects of plant diversity on element cycling and trophic interactions, using a multi-disciplinary approach. Here, we review the results of 15 years of research in the Jena Experiment, focussing on the effects of manipulating plant species richness and plant functional richness. With more than 85,000 measures taken from the plant diversity plots, the Jena Experiment has allowed answering fundamental questions important for functional biodiversity research. First, the question was how general the effect of plant species richness is, regarding the many different processes that take place in an ecosystem. About 45% of different types of ecosystem processes measured in the ‘main experiment’, where plant species richness ranged from 1 to 60 species, were significantly affected by plant species richness, providing strong support for the view that biodiversity is a significant driver of ecosystem functioning. Many measures were not saturating at the 60-species level, but increased linearly with the logarithm of species richness. There was, however, great variability in the strength of response among different processes. One striking pattern was that many processes, in particular belowground processes, took several years to respond to the manipulation of plant species richness, showing that biodiversity experiments have to be long-term, to distinguish trends from transitory patterns. In addition, the results from the Jena Experiment provide further evidence that diversity begets stability, for example stability against invasion of plant species, but unexpectedly some results also suggested the opposite, e.g. when plant communities experience severe perturbations or elevated resource availability. This highlights the need to revisit diversity–stability theory. Second, we explored whether individual plant species or individual plant functional groups, or biodiversity itself is more important for ecosystem functioning, in particular biomass production. We found strong effects of individual species and plant functional groups on biomass production, yet these effects mostly occurred in addition to, but not instead of, effects of plant species richness. Third, the Jena Experiment assessed the effect of diversity on multitrophic interactions. The diversity of most organisms responded positively to increases in plant species richness, and the effect was stronger for above- than for belowground organisms, and stronger for herbivores than for carnivores or detritivores. Thus, diversity begets diversity. In addition, the effect on organismic diversity was stronger than the effect on species abundances. Fourth, the Jena Experiment aimed to assess the effect of diversity on N, P and C cycling and the water balance of the plots, separating between element input into the ecosystem, element turnover, element stocks, and output from the ecosystem. While inputs were generally less affected by plant species richness, measures of element stocks, turnover and output were often positively affected by plant diversity, e.g. carbon storage strongly increased with increasing plant species richness. Variables of the N cycle responded less strongly to plant species richness than variables of the C cycle. Fifth, plant traits are often used to unravel mechanisms underlying the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship. In the Jena Experiment, most investigated plant traits, both above- and belowground, were plastic and trait expression depended on plant diversity in a complex way, suggesting limitation to using database traits for linking plant traits to particular functions. Sixth, plant diversity effects on ecosystem processes are often caused by plant diversity effects on species interactions. Analyses in the Jena Experiment including structural equation modelling suggest complex interactions that changed with diversity, e.g. soil carbon storage and greenhouse gas emission were affected by changes in the composition and activity of the belowground microbial community. Manipulation experiments, in which particular organisms, e.g. belowground invertebrates, were excluded from plots in split-plot experiments, supported the important role of the biotic component for element and water fluxes. Seventh, the Jena Experiment aimed to put the results into the context of agricultural practices in managed grasslands. The effect of increasing plant species richness from 1 to 16 species on plant biomass was, in absolute terms, as strong as the effect of a more intensive grassland management, using fertiliser and increasing mowing frequency. Potential bioenergy production from high-diversity plots was similar to that of conventionally used energy crops. These results suggest that diverse ‘High Nature Value Grasslands’ are multifunctional and can deliver a range of ecosystem services including production-related services. A final task was to assess the importance of potential artefacts in biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, caused by the weeding of the plant community to maintain plant species composition. While the effort (in hours) needed to weed a plot was often negatively related to plant species richness, species richness still affected the majority of ecosystem variables. Weeding also did not negatively affect monoculture performance; rather, monocultures deteriorated over time for a number of biological reasons, as shown in plant-soil feedback experiments. To summarize, the Jena Experiment has allowed for a comprehensive analysis of the functional role of biodiversity in an ecosystem. A main challenge for future biodiversity research is to increase our mechanistic understanding of why the magnitude of biodiversity effects differs among processes and contexts. It is likely that there will be no simple answer. For example, among the multitude of mechanisms suggested to underlie the positive plant species richness effect on biomass, some have received limited support in the Jena Experiment, such as vertical root niche partitioning. However, others could not be rejected in targeted analyses. Thus, from the current results in the Jena Experiment, it seems likely that the positive biodiversity effect results from several mechanisms acting simultaneously in more diverse communities, such as reduced pathogen attack, the presence of more plant growth promoting organisms, less seed limitation, and increased trait differences leading to complementarity in resource uptake. Distinguishing between different mechanisms requires careful testing of competing hypotheses. Biodiversity research has matured such that predictive approaches testing particular mechanisms are now possible.
106. Plant diversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality via multitrophic diversity.
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Li Y, Schuldt A, Ebeling A, Eisenhauer N, Huang Y, Albert G, Albracht C, Amyntas A, Bonkowski M, Bruelheide H, Bröcher M, Chesters D, Chen J, Chen Y, Chen JT, Ciobanu M, Deng X, Fornoff F, Gleixner G, Guo L, Guo PF, Heintz-Buschart A, Klein AM, Lange M, Li S, Li Q, Li Y, Luo A, Meyer ST, von Oheimb G, Rutten G, Scholten T, Solbach MD, Staab M, Wang MQ, Zhang N, Zhu CD, Schmid B, Ma K, and Liu X
- Abstract
Ecosystem functioning depends on biodiversity at multiple trophic levels, yet relationships between multitrophic diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality have been poorly explored, with studies often focusing on individual trophic levels and functions and on specific ecosystem types. Here, we show that plant diversity can affect ecosystem functioning both directly and by affecting other trophic levels. Using data on 13 trophic groups and 13 ecosystem functions from two large biodiversity experiments-one representing temperate grasslands and the other subtropical forests-we found that plant diversity increases multifunctionality through elevated multitrophic diversity. Across both experiments, the association between multitrophic diversity and multifunctionality was stronger than the relationship between the diversity of individual trophic groups and multifunctionality. Our results also suggest that the role of multitrophic diversity is greater in forests than in grasslands. These findings imply that, to promote sustained ecosystem multifunctionality, conservation planning must consider the diversity of both plants and higher trophic levels., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)
- Published
- 2024
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107. A multitrophic perspective on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research.
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Eisenhauer N, Schielzeth H, Barnes AD, Barry K, Bonn A, Brose U, Bruelheide H, Buchmann N, Buscot F, Ebeling A, Ferlian O, Freschet GT, Giling DP, Hättenschwiler S, Hillebrand H, Hines J, Isbell F, Koller-France E, König-Ries B, de Kroon H, Meyer ST, Milcu A, Müller J, Nock CA, Petermann JS, Roscher C, Scherber C, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Schmid B, Schnitzer SA, Schuldt A, Tscharntke T, Türke M, van Dam NM, van der Plas F, Vogel A, Wagg C, Wardle DA, Weigelt A, Weisser WW, Wirth C, and Jochum M
- Abstract
Concern about the functional consequences of unprecedented loss in biodiversity has prompted biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research to become one of the most active fields of ecological research in the past 25 years. Hundreds of experiments have manipulated biodiversity as an independent variable and found compelling support that the functioning of ecosystems increases with the diversity of their ecological communities. This research has also identified some of the mechanisms underlying BEF relationships, some context-dependencies of the strength of relationships, as well as implications for various ecosystem services that mankind depends upon. In this paper, we argue that a multitrophic perspective of biotic interactions in random and non-random biodiversity change scenarios is key to advance future BEF research and to address some of its most important remaining challenges. We discuss that the study and the quantification of multitrophic interactions in space and time facilitates scaling up from small-scale biodiversity manipulations and ecosystem function assessments to management-relevant spatial scales across ecosystem boundaries. We specifically consider multitrophic conceptual frameworks to understand and predict the context-dependency of BEF relationships. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the eco-evolutionary underpinnings of multitrophic BEF relationships. We outline that FAIR data (meeting the standards of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) and reproducible processing will be key to advance this field of research by making it more integrative. Finally, we show how these BEF insights may be implemented for ecosystem management, society, and policy. Given that human well-being critically depends on the multiple services provided by diverse, multitrophic communities, integrating the approaches of evolutionary ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology in future BEF research will be key to refine conservation targets and develop sustainable management strategies.
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- 2019
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108. Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought.
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Craven D, Isbell F, Manning P, Connolly J, Bruelheide H, Ebeling A, Roscher C, van Ruijven J, Weigelt A, Wilsey B, Beierkuhnlein C, de Luca E, Griffin JN, Hautier Y, Hector A, Jentsch A, Kreyling J, Lanta V, Loreau M, Meyer ST, Mori AS, Naeem S, Palmborg C, Polley HW, Reich PB, Schmid B, Siebenkäs A, Seabloom E, Thakur MP, Tilman D, Vogel A, and Eisenhauer N
- Subjects
- Europe, North America, Biodiversity, Droughts, Eutrophication, Grassland, Plant Physiological Phenomena
- Abstract
Global change drivers are rapidly altering resource availability and biodiversity. While there is consensus that greater biodiversity increases the functioning of ecosystems, the extent to which biodiversity buffers ecosystem productivity in response to changes in resource availability remains unclear. We use data from 16 grassland experiments across North America and Europe that manipulated plant species richness and one of two essential resources-soil nutrients or water-to assess the direction and strength of the interaction between plant diversity and resource alteration on above-ground productivity and net biodiversity, complementarity, and selection effects. Despite strong increases in productivity with nutrient addition and decreases in productivity with drought, we found that resource alterations did not alter biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. Our results suggest that these relationships are largely determined by increases in complementarity effects along plant species richness gradients. Although nutrient addition reduced complementarity effects at high diversity, this appears to be due to high biomass in monocultures under nutrient enrichment. Our results indicate that diversity and the complementarity of species are important regulators of grassland ecosystem productivity, regardless of changes in other drivers of ecosystem function., (© 2016 The Authors.)
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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