Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality.

ABSTRACT: Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity-multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a land-use intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above- and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, comm

SUBMITTER: Soliveres S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4843691 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature