Tree species diversity promotes aboveground carbon storage through functional diversity and functional dominance.

ABSTRACT: The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function has increasingly been debated as the cornerstone of the processes behind ecosystem services delivery. Experimental and natural field-based studies have come up with nonconsistent patterns of biodiversity-ecosystem function, supporting either niche complementarity or selection effects hypothesis. Here, we used aboveground carbon (AGC) storage as proxy for ecosystem function in a South African mistbelt forest, and analyzed its relationship with species diversity, through functional diversity and functional dominance. We hypothesized that (1) diversity influences AGC through functional diversity and functional dominance effects; and (2) effects of diversity on AGC would be greater for functional dominance than for functional diversi

SUBMITTER: Mensah S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5513275 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature