Biodiversity across trophic levels drives multifunctionality in highly diverse forests.

ABSTRACT: Human-induced biodiversity change impairs ecosystem functions crucial to human well-being. However, the consequences of this change for ecosystem multifunctionality are poorly understood beyond effects of plant species loss, particularly in regions with high biodiversity across trophic levels. Here we adopt a multitrophic perspective to analyze how biodiversity affects multifunctionality in biodiverse subtropical forests. We consider 22 independent measurements of nine ecosystem functions central to energy and nutrient flow across trophic levels. We find that individual functions and multifunctionality are more strongly affected by the diversity of heterotrophs promoting decomposition and nutrient cycling, and by plant functional-trait diversity and composition, than by tree species richne

SUBMITTER: Schuldt A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6068104 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature