Habitat loss weakens the positive relationship between grassland plant richness and above-ground biomass.

ABSTRACT: Habitat loss and fragmentation per se have been shown to be a major threat to global biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, little is known about how habitat loss and fragmentation per se alters the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF relationship) in the natural landscape context. Based on 130 landscapes identified by a stratified random sampling in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, we investigated the effects of landscape context (habitat loss and fragmentation per se) on plant richness, above-ground biomass, and the relationship between them in grassland communities using a structural equation model. We found that habitat loss directly decreased plant richness and hence decreased above-ground biomass, while fragmentation per se directly increa

SUBMITTER: Yan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10948147 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature