RRC ID 56538
Author Steudel B, Hallmann C, Lorenz M, Abrahamczyk S, Prinz K, Herrfurth C, Feussner I, Martini JW, Kessler M.
Title Contrasting biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships in phylogenetic and functional diversity.
Journal New Phytol
Abstract It is well known that ecosystem functioning is positively influenced by biodiversity. Most biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments have measured biodiversity based on species richness or phylogenetic relationships. However, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that ecosystem functioning should be more closely related to functional diversity than to species richness. We applied different metrics of biodiversity in an artificial biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiment using 64 species of green microalgae in combinations of two to 16 species. We found that phylogenetic and functional diversity were positively correlated with biomass overyield, driven by their strong correlation with species richness. At low species richness, no significant correlation between overyield and functional and phylogenetic diversity was found. However, at high species richness (16 species), we found a positive relationship of overyield with functional diversity and a negative relationship with phylogenetic diversity. We show that negative phylogenetic diversity-ecosystem functioning relationships can result from interspecific growth inhibition. The opposing performances of facilitation (functional diversity) and inhibition (phylogenetic diversity) we observed at the 16 species level suggest that phylogenetic diversity is not always a good proxy for functional diversity and that results from experiments with low species numbers may underestimate negative species interactions.
Volume 212(2)
Pages 409-20
Published 2016-10-1
DOI 10.1111/nph.14054
PMID 27301904
MeSH Biodiversity* Biomass Genetic Variation Microalgae / growth & development Phylogeny* Quantitative Trait, Heritable Species Specificity
IF 7.299
Times Cited 11
Resource
Algae