Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1111/geb.13165
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) A cross-scale assessment of productivity-diversity relationships
Author Craven, D.; van der Sande, M.T.; Meyer, C.; Gerstner, K.; Bennett, J.M.; Giling, D.P.; Hines, J.; Phillips, H.R.P.; May, F.; Bannar-Martin, K.H.; Chase, J.M.; Keil, P.
Source Titel Global Ecology and Biogeography
Year 2020
Department BZF; iDiv
Volume 29
Issue 11
Page From 1940
Page To 1955
Language englisch
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5948155
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fgeb.13165&file=geb13165-sup-0001-Supinfo.doc
Keywords biodiversity–ecosystem function; biomass; climate; machine learning; more individuals hypothesis; spatial grain; species–energy relationship
Abstract

Aim

Biodiversity and ecosystem productivity vary across the globe, and considerable effort has been made to describe their relationships. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research has traditionally focused on how experimentally controlled species richness affects net primary productivity (S → NPP) at small spatial grains. In contrast, the influence of productivity on richness (NPP → S) has been explored at many grains in naturally assembled communities. Mismatches in spatial scale between approaches have fuelled debate about the strength and direction of biodiversity–productivity relationships. Here, we examine the direction and strength of the influence of productivity on diversity (NPP → S) and the influence of diversity on productivity (S → NPP) and how these vary across spatial grains.

Location

Contiguous USA.

Time period

1999–2015.

Major taxa studied

Woody species (angiosperms and gymnosperms).

Methods

Using data from North American forests at grains from local (672 m2) to coarse spatial units (median area = 35,677 km2), we assess relationships between diversity and productivity using structural equation and random forest models, while accounting for variation in climate, environmental heterogeneity, management and forest age.

Results

We show that relationships between S and NPP strengthen with spatial grain. Within each grain, S → NPP and NPP → S have similar magnitudes, meaning that processes underlying S → NPP and NPP → S either operate simultaneously or that one of them is real and the other is an artefact. At all spatial grains, S was one of the weakest predictors of forest productivity, which was largely driven by biomass, temperature and forest management and age.

Main conclusions

We conclude that spatial grain mediates relationships between biodiversity and productivity in real‐world ecosystems and that results supporting predictions from each approach (NPP → S and S → NPP) serve as an impetus for future studies testing underlying mechanisms. Productivity–diversity relationships emerge at multiple spatial grains, which should widen the focus of national and global policy and research to larger spatial grains.

Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=23359
Craven, D., van der Sande, M.T., Meyer, C., Gerstner, K., Bennett, J.M., Giling, D.P., Hines, J., Phillips, H.R.P., May, F., Bannar-Martin, K.H., Chase, J.M., Keil, P. (2020):
A cross-scale assessment of productivity-diversity relationships
Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 29 (11), 1940 - 1955 10.1111/geb.13165