Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought.

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 resour

SUBMITTER: Craven D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4843698 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature