Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1111/ele.12088
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Title (Primary) Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity
Author de Mazancourt, C.; Isbell, F.; Larocque, A.; Berendse, F.; De Luca, E.; Grace, J.B.; Haegeman, B.; Wayne Polley, H.; Roscher, C.; Schmid, B.; Tilman, D.; van Ruijven, J.; Weigelt, A.; Wilsey, B.J.; Loreau, M.
Source Titel Ecology Letters
Year 2013
Department BZF
Volume 16
Issue 5
Page From 617
Page To 625
Language englisch
Keywords Biodiversity; demographic stochasticity; environmental stochasticity
UFZ wide themes RU1;
Abstract As biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, an important current scientific challenge is to understand
and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss. Here, we develop a theory that predicts the temporal
variability of community biomass from the properties of individual component species in monoculture.
Our theory shows that biodiversity stabilises ecosystems through three main mechanisms: (1) asynchrony in
species’ responses to environmental fluctuations, (2) reduced demographic stochasticity due to overyielding
in species mixtures and (3) reduced observation error (including spatial and sampling variability). Parameterised
with empirical data from four long-term grassland biodiversity experiments, our prediction explained
22–75% of the observed variability, and captured much of the effect of species richness. Richness stabilised
communities mainly by increasing community biomass and reducing the strength of demographic stochasticity.
Our approach calls for a re-evaluation of the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity on
ecosystem stability.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=13642
de Mazancourt, C., Isbell, F., Larocque, A., Berendse, F., De Luca, E., Grace, J.B., Haegeman, B., Wayne Polley, H., Roscher, C., Schmid, B., Tilman, D., van Ruijven, J., Weigelt, A., Wilsey, B.J., Loreau, M. (2013):
Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity
Ecol. Lett. 16 (5), 617 - 625 10.1111/ele.12088