TY - JOUR

T1 - Overyielding in experimental grassland communities - Irrespective of species pool or spatial scale

AU - Roscher, Christiane

AU - Temperton, Vicky M.

AU - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael

AU - Schmitz, Martin

AU - Schumacher, Jens

AU - Schmid, Bernhard

AU - Buchmann, Nina

AU - Weisser, Wolfgang W.

AU - Schulze, Ernst Detlef

PY - 2005/4/1

Y1 - 2005/4/1

N2 - In a large integrated biodiversity project ('The Jena Experiment' in Germany) we established two experiments, one with a pool of 60 plant species that ranged broadly from dominant to subordinate competitors on large 20 x 20 m and small 3.5 x 3.5 m plots (= main experiment), and one with a pool of nine potentially dominant species on small 3.5 x 3.5 m plots (= dominance experiment). We found identical positive species richness-aboveground productivity relationships in the main experiment at both scales. This result suggests that scaling up, at least over the short term, is appropriate in interpreting the implications of such experiments for larger-scale patterns. The species richness-productivity relationship was more pronounced in the experiment with dominant species (46.7 and 82.6% yield increase compared to mean monoculture, respectively). Additionally, transgressive overyielding occurred more frequently in the dominance experiment (67.7% of cases) than in the main experiment (23.4% of cases). Additive partitioning and relative yield total analyses showed that both complementarity and selection effects contributed to the positive net biodiversity effect.

AB - In a large integrated biodiversity project ('The Jena Experiment' in Germany) we established two experiments, one with a pool of 60 plant species that ranged broadly from dominant to subordinate competitors on large 20 x 20 m and small 3.5 x 3.5 m plots (= main experiment), and one with a pool of nine potentially dominant species on small 3.5 x 3.5 m plots (= dominance experiment). We found identical positive species richness-aboveground productivity relationships in the main experiment at both scales. This result suggests that scaling up, at least over the short term, is appropriate in interpreting the implications of such experiments for larger-scale patterns. The species richness-productivity relationship was more pronounced in the experiment with dominant species (46.7 and 82.6% yield increase compared to mean monoculture, respectively). Additionally, transgressive overyielding occurred more frequently in the dominance experiment (67.7% of cases) than in the main experiment (23.4% of cases). Additive partitioning and relative yield total analyses showed that both complementarity and selection effects contributed to the positive net biodiversity effect.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Complementarity effect

KW - Dominant species

KW - Plant species richness

KW - Plot size

KW - Productivity

KW - Selection effect

KW - The Jena Experiment

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=17444391731&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/56e27dad-bac7-3a0e-a756-b47d470202d0/

U2 - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00736.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00736.x

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:17444391731

VL - 8

SP - 419

EP - 429

JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

SN - 1461-023X

IS - 4

ER -