Biodiversity-stability relationships strengthen over time in a long-term grassland experiment.

ABSTRACT: Numerous studies have demonstrated that biodiversity drives ecosystem functioning, yet how biodiversity loss alters ecosystems functioning and stability in the long-term lacks experimental evidence. We report temporal effects of species richness on community productivity, stability, species asynchrony, and complementarity, and how the relationships among them change over 17 years in a grassland biodiversity experiment. Productivity declined more rapidly in less diverse communities resulting in temporally strengthening positive effects of richness on productivity, complementarity, and stability. In later years asynchrony played a more important role in increasing community stability as the negative effect of richness on population stability diminished. Only during later years did species co

SUBMITTER: Wagg C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9751076 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature