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Publications

Journal Article Ppublish

PubMed: 42213757 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2602893123

Mechanistic links between coexistence, productivity, and stability in experimental grasslands.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 123(22):e2602893123

Authors: Pubin Hong, Bernhard Schmid, Dylan Craven, Maowei Liang, Mingyu Luo, Zeyu Wang, Chen Yang, Libin Zhou, Eric Allan, Jane A Catford, Nico Eisenhauer, Yanhao Feng, Yann Hautier, Mengjiao Huang, Yuanyuan Huang, Forest Isbell, Lin Jiang, Michel Loreau, Peter B Reich, Christiane Roscher, Jasper van Ruijven, David Tilman, Alexandra Weigelt, Shaopeng Wang

Affiliations

  • State Key Laboratory of Vegetation Structure, Function and Construction (VegLab), Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
  • Centro de Genómica, Ecología y Medio Ambiente, Universidad Mayor, Santiago 8580745, Chile.
  • Data Observatory Foundation, ANID Technology Center No. DO210001, Eliodoro Yáñez 2990, 7510277, Providencia, Santiago, Chile.
  • Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, University of Minnesota, East Bethel, MN 55455.
  • State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China.
  • State Key Laboratory of Lake and Watershed Science for Water Security, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 211135, China.
  • Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, 3013 Bern, Switzerland.
  • Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, 3013 Bern, Switzerland.
  • Department of Geography, King's College London, London WC2B 4BG, United Kingdom.
  • Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
  • German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
  • Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
  • Department of Biology, Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CH, The Netherlands.
  • Basque Centre for Climate Change, Leioa 48940, Spain.
  • Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.
  • School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332.
  • Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis 09200, France.
  • Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108.
  • Institute for Global Change Biology, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.
  • Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig 04318, Germany.
  • Forest Ecology and Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands.
  • Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93117.

Abstract

The escalating biodiversity crisis underscores the urgent need for a unified framework that links the mechanisms maintaining biodiversity to its functional consequences. However, studies of species coexistence and biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning have largely progressed independently. Here, using long-term data from five grassland biodiversity experiments, we quantified "coexistence potential" (i.e., the degree to which niche differences exceed fitness differences) and tested its relationships with biodiversity effects on both ecosystem productivity (via complementarity and selection effects) and stability (via species asynchrony and species stability). We found that the relationships within the coexistence-productivity-stability triad were overall positive. These patterns were mechanistically explained by phylogenetic and trait composition: Phylogenetically and functionally more diverse communities supported higher coexistence potential and greater productivity, while those dominated by species with stronger root-mycorrhizal collaboration and larger seeds exhibited enhanced productivity and stability. Our work provides integrative empirical evidence linking biodiversity maintenance to ecosystem functioning, demonstrating that conserving phylogenetically and functionally diverse communities, particularly those including collaborative species, is key to sustaining biodiverse, productive, and stable ecosystems.

MeSH

Ecosystem, Work, Grassland, Biodiversity