Are ecosystem services stabilized by differences among species? A test using crop pollination.

ABSTRACT: Biological diversity could enhance ecosystem service provision by increasing the mean level of services provided, and/or by providing more consistent (stable) services over space and time. Ecological theory predicts that when an ecosystem service is provided by many species, it will be stabilized against disturbance by a variety of 'stabilizing mechanisms.' However, few studies have investigated whether stabilizing mechanisms occur in real landscapes affected by human disturbance. We used two datasets on crop pollination by wild native bees to screen for and differentiate among three stabilizing mechanisms: density compensation (negative co-variance among species' abundances); response diversity (differential response to environmental variables among species); and cross-scale resilience (r

SUBMITTER: Winfree R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2674338 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature