TY - JOUR

T1 - Biodiversity across trophic levels drives multifunctionality in highly diverse forests

AU - Schuldt, Andreas

AU - Assmann, Thorsten

AU - Brezzi, Matteo

AU - Buscot, François

AU - Eichenberg, David

AU - Gutknecht, Jessica

AU - Härdtle, Werner

AU - He, Jin-Sheng

AU - Klein, Alexandra-Maria

AU - Kühn, Peter

AU - Liu, Xiaojuan

AU - Ma, Keping

AU - Niklaus, Pascal A.

AU - Pietsch, Katherina A.

AU - Purahong, Witoon

AU - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael

AU - Schmid, Bernhard

AU - Scholten, Thomas

AU - Staab, Michael

AU - Tang, Zhiyao

AU - Trogisch, Stefan

AU - von Oheimb, Goddert

AU - Wirth, Christian

AU - Wubet, Tesfaye

AU - Zhu, Chao-Dong

AU - Bruelheide, Helge

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018, The Author(s).

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - 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 richness. Moreover, cascading effects of higher trophic-level diversity on functions originating from lower trophic-level processes highlight that multitrophic biodiversity is key to understanding drivers of multifunctionality. A broader perspective on biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships is crucial for sustainable ecosystem management in light of non-random species loss and intensified biotic disturbances under future environmental change.

AB - 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 richness. Moreover, cascading effects of higher trophic-level diversity on functions originating from lower trophic-level processes highlight that multitrophic biodiversity is key to understanding drivers of multifunctionality. A broader perspective on biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships is crucial for sustainable ecosystem management in light of non-random species loss and intensified biotic disturbances under future environmental change.

KW - Environmental planning

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Ecology

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Forest ecology

KW - Tropical ecology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050960060&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/6fcf5cb2-c125-3f0f-878d-a22ad6f9e1d1/

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-05421-z

DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-05421-z

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 30065285

VL - 9

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 2989

ER -