Does biodiversity influence how ecosystems function? Might
diversity loss affect the ability of ecosystems to deliver services
of benefit to humankind? Ecosystems provide food, fuel, fiber, and
drinkable water, regulate local and regional climate, and recycle
needed nutrients, among other things. An ecosyste's ability to
sustain functioning may depend on the number of species residing in
the ecosystem--its biological diversity--but this has been a
controversial hypothesis. There are many unanswered questions about
how and why changes in biodiversity could alter ecosystem
functioning. This volume, written by top researchers, synthesizes
empirical studies on the relationship between biodiversity and
ecosystem functioning and extends that knowledge using a novel and
coordinated set of models and theoretical approaches.
These experimental and theoretical analyses demonstrate that
functioning usually increases with biodiversity, but also reveals
when and under what circumstances other relationships between
biodiversity and ecosystem functioning might occur. It also
accounts for apparent changes in diversity-functioning
relationships that emerge over time in disturbed ecosystems,
thereby addressing a major controversy in the field. The volume
concludes with a blueprint for moving beyond small-scale studies to
regional ones--a move of enormous significance for policy and
conservation but one that will entail tackling some of the most
fundamental challenges in ecology.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Juan Armesto,
Claudia Neuhauser, Andy Hector, Clarence Lehman, Peter Kareiva,
Sharon Lawler, Peter Chesson, Teri Balser, Mary K. Firestone,
Robert Holt, Michel Loreau, Johannes Knops, David Wedin, Peter
Reich, Shahid Naeem, Bernhard Schmid, Jasmin Joshi, and Felix
Schlapfer."
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