Plant diversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality via multitrophic diversity

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Yi Li
  • Andreas Schuldt
  • Anne Ebeling
  • Nico Eisenhauer
  • Yuanyuan Huang
  • Georg Albert
  • Cynthia Albracht
  • Angelos Amyntas
  • Michael Bonkowski
  • Helge Bruelheide
  • Maximilian Bröcher
  • Douglas Chesters
  • Jun Chen
  • Yannan Chen
  • Jing Ting Chen
  • Marcel Ciobanu
  • Xianglu Deng
  • Felix Fornoff
  • Gerd Gleixner
  • Liangdong Guo
  • Peng Fei Guo
  • Anna Heintz-Buschart
  • Alexandra Maria Klein
  • Markus Lange
  • Shan Li
  • Qi Li
  • Yingbin Li
  • Arong Luo
  • Sebastian T. Meyer
  • Goddert von Oheimb
  • Gemma Rutten
  • Thomas Scholten
  • Marcel D. Solbach
  • Ming Qiang Wang
  • Naili Zhang
  • Chao Dong Zhu
  • Bernhard Schmid
  • Keping Ma
  • Xiaojuan Liu

Ecosystem functioning depends on biodiversity at multiple trophic levels, yet relationships between multitrophic diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality have been poorly explored, with studies often focusing on individual trophic levels and functions and on specific ecosystem types. Here, we show that plant diversity can affect ecosystem functioning both directly and by affecting other trophic levels. Using data on 13 trophic groups and 13 ecosystem functions from two large biodiversity experiments—one representing temperate grasslands and the other subtropical forests—we found that plant diversity increases multifunctionality through elevated multitrophic diversity. Across both experiments, the association between multitrophic diversity and multifunctionality was stronger than the relationship between the diversity of individual trophic groups and multifunctionality. Our results also suggest that the role of multitrophic diversity is greater in forests than in grasslands. These findings imply that, to promote sustained ecosystem multifunctionality, conservation planning must consider the diversity of both plants and higher trophic levels.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature Ecology and Evolution
Volume8
Issue number11
Pages (from-to)2037-2047
Number of pages11
ISSN2397-334X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11.2024
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g., a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

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