A multitrophic perspective on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research

doi:10.1016/bs.aecr.2019.06.001

Advances in Ecological Research

Volume 61, 2019, Pages 1-54

https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aecr.2019.06.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

Concern about the functional consequences of unprecedented loss in biodiversity has prompted biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) research to become one of the most active fields of ecological research in the past 25 years. Hundreds of experiments have manipulated biodiversity as an independent variable and found compelling support that the functioning of ecosystems increases with the diversity of their ecological communities. This research has also identified some of the mechanisms underlying BEF relationships, some context-dependencies of the strength of relationships, as well as implications for various ecosystem services that humankind depends upon. In this chapter, we argue that a multitrophic perspective of biotic interactions in random and non-random biodiversity change scenarios is key to advance future BEF research and to address some of its most important remaining challenges. We discuss that the study and the quantification of multitrophic interactions in space and time facilitates scaling up from small-scale biodiversity manipulations and ecosystem function assessments to management-relevant spatial scales across ecosystem boundaries. We specifically consider multitrophic conceptual frameworks to understand and predict the context-dependency of BEF relationships. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the eco-evolutionary underpinnings of multitrophic BEF relationships. We outline that FAIR data (meeting the standards of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) and reproducible processing will be key to advance this field of research by making it more integrative. Finally, we show how these BEF insights may be implemented for ecosystem management, society, and policy. Given that human well-being critically depends on the multiple services provided by diverse, multitrophic communities, integrating the approaches of evolutionary ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology in future BEF research will be key to refine conservation targets and develop sustainable management strategies.

Section snippets

What are the key achievements of BEF research?

“The community is indeed the hierarchical level where the basic characteristics of life—its diversity, complexity, and historical nature—are perhaps the most daunting and challenging. […] however, most of the theoretical insights that have been gained about the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning come from approaches developed in community ecology.”
Loreau (2010)

Human activities influence virtually all ecosystems around the globe through a large variety of environmental alterations (

What are the key challenges of future BEF research?

“The central problem in understanding and measuring biological diversity is that we still have a lot of work to do. And while we are taking inventory, the shelves are already being cleared.”
Christian Wirth (2013)

Congruent to the statement above, biodiversity research is a field under time pressure. Biodiversity change can alter the functioning of ecosystems in dramatic ways and at an unprecedented pace, which will have important consequences for the provision of ecosystem services (Balvanera et

Concluding remarks

The BEF research field faces the critical challenge to simultaneously develop a more mechanistic understanding of BEF relationships and their context-dependencies as well as to scale up from the plot-level mechanisms and processes to management-relevant spatial and temporal scales in order to operationalize BEF insights for ecosystem management, society, and decision making. Here, we argue that further exploring trophic (e.g., Barnes et al., 2018) and non-trophic interactions (e.g.,

Acknowledgements

The Jena Experiment is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation; FOR 1451), with additional support by the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). This project received additional support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 677232 to NE) and the German Centre for

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Chapter One - A multitrophic perspective on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research

Abstract

Section snippets

What are the key achievements of BEF research?

What are the key challenges of future BEF research?

Concluding remarks

Acknowledgements

Soil Biol. Biochem.

Nat. Commun.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Adv. Ecol. Res.

Adv. Ecol. Res.

Adv. Ecol. Res.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Basic Appl. Ecol.

Basic Appl. Ecol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Biol. Conserv.

Ecol. Econ.

Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness

Science

More diverse plant communities have higher functioning over time due to turnover in complementary dominant species

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

A comparison of the strength of biodiversity effects across multiple functions

Oecologia

Land use intensification alters ecosystem multifunctionality via loss of biodiversity and changes to functional composition

Ecol. Lett.

Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning respond unimodally to environmental stress

Ecol. Lett.

Quantifying the evidence for biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning and services

Ecol. Lett.

Linking biodiversity and ecosystem services: current uncertainties and the necessary next steps

Bioscience

Integrating community assembly and biodiversity to better understand ecosystem function: the Community Assembly and the Functioning of Ecosystems (CAFE) approach

Ecol. Lett.

Aboveground-Belowground Linkages: Biotic Interactions, Ecosystem Processes, and Global Change

Species richness and biomass explain spatial turnover in ecosystem functioning across tropical and temperate ecosystems

Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B

Loss of plant species diversity reduces soil erosion resistance

Ecosystems

Grassland biodiversity can pay

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Linked data: principles and state of the art

Networking our way to better ecosystem service provision

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Finding generality in ecology: a model for globally distributed experiments

Methods Ecol. Evol.

A decade of insights into grassland ecosystem responses to global environmental change

Nat. Ecol. Evol.

Recent natural selection causes adaptive evolution of an avian polygenic trait

Science

The geography of the anthropocene differs between the land and the sea

BioRxiv

Functional consequences of realistic biodiversity changes in a marine ecosystem

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in soil

Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B

Unified spatial scaling of species and their trophic interactions

Nature

Predicting the consequences of species loss using size-structured biodiversity approaches

Biol. Rev.

Designing forest biodiversity experiments: general considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical China

Methods Ecol. Evol.

Partitioning the effects of algal species identity and richness on benthic marine primary production

Oikos

Relative and interactive effects of plant and grazer richness in a benthic marine community

Ecology

Towards automated visual monitoring of individual gorillas in the wild

Investigating the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality: challenges and solutions

Methods Ecol. Evol.

The ecosystem functioning dimension in conservation: insights from remote sensing

Biodivers. Conserv.

Experimental evidence that evolutionarily diverse assemblages result in higher productivity

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Evolutionary history and the effect of biodiversity on plant productivity

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.