TY - JOUR
T1 - Biodiversity mediates the effects of stressors but not nutrients on litter decomposition
AU - Beaumelle, Léa
AU - De Laender, Frederik
AU - Eisenhauer, Nico
N1 - Funding Information:
L.B. was funded by the Synthesis Centre (sDiv) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, funded by the German Research Foundation (FZT 118). We are grateful to Helen R. P. Phillips, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Adam T. Clark and Katharina Gerstner for statistical advice and to Simone Cesarz for creating the images for Figures 1 and 5.
Funding Information:
L.B. was funded by the Synthesis Centre (sDiv) of the German Centre for Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, funded by the German Research Foundation (FZT 118). We are grateful to Helen R. P. Phillips, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Adam T. Clark and Katharina Gerstner for statistical advice and to Simone Cesarz for creating the images for Figures 1 and 5.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/6/26
Y1 - 2020/6/26
N2 - Understanding the consequences of ongoing biodiversity changes for ecosystems is a pressing challenge. Controlled biodiversity-ecosystem function experiments with random biodiversity loss scenarios have demonstrated that more diverse communities usually provide higher levels of ecosystem functioning. However, it is not clear if these results predict the ecosystem consequences of environmental changes that cause non-random alterations in biodiversity and community composition. We synthesized 69 independent studies reporting 660 observations of the impacts of two pervasive drivers of global change (chemical stressors and nutrient enrichment) on animal and microbial decomposer diversity and litter decomposition. Using meta-analysis and structural equation modeling, we show that declines in decomposer diversity and abundance explain reduced litter decomposition in response to stressors but not to nutrients. While chemical stressors generally reduced biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, detrimental effects of nutrients occurred only at high levels of nutrient inputs. Thus, more intense environmental change does not always result in stronger responses, illustrating the complexity of ecosystem consequences of biodiversity change. Overall, these findings provide strong evidence that the consequences of observed biodiversity change for ecosystems depend on the kind of environmental change, and are especially significant when human activities decrease biodiversity.
AB - Understanding the consequences of ongoing biodiversity changes for ecosystems is a pressing challenge. Controlled biodiversity-ecosystem function experiments with random biodiversity loss scenarios have demonstrated that more diverse communities usually provide higher levels of ecosystem functioning. However, it is not clear if these results predict the ecosystem consequences of environmental changes that cause non-random alterations in biodiversity and community composition. We synthesized 69 independent studies reporting 660 observations of the impacts of two pervasive drivers of global change (chemical stressors and nutrient enrichment) on animal and microbial decomposer diversity and litter decomposition. Using meta-analysis and structural equation modeling, we show that declines in decomposer diversity and abundance explain reduced litter decomposition in response to stressors but not to nutrients. While chemical stressors generally reduced biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, detrimental effects of nutrients occurred only at high levels of nutrient inputs. Thus, more intense environmental change does not always result in stronger responses, illustrating the complexity of ecosystem consequences of biodiversity change. Overall, these findings provide strong evidence that the consequences of observed biodiversity change for ecosystems depend on the kind of environmental change, and are especially significant when human activities decrease biodiversity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087878524&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.7554/eLife.55659
DO - 10.7554/eLife.55659
M3 - Article
C2 - 32589139
SN - 2050-084X
VL - 9
SP - 1
EP - 40
JO - eLife
JF - eLife
M1 - e55659
ER -