Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Local Loss And Spatial Homogenization Of Plant Diversity Reduce Ecosystem Multifunctionality, Yann Hautier, Forest Isbell, Elizabeth T. Borer, Eric W. Seabloom, W. Stanley Harpole, Eric M. Lind, Andrew S. Macdougall, Carly J. Stevens, Peter B. Adler, Juan Alberti, Jonathan D. Bakker, Lars A. Brudvig, Yvonne M. Buckley, Marc Cadotte, Maria C. Caldeira, Enrique J. Chaneton, Chengjin Chu, Pedro Daleo, Christopher R. Dickman, John M. Dwyer, Anu Eskelinen, Philip A Fay, Jennifer Firn, Nicole Hagenah, Helmut Hillebrand, Oscar Iribarne, Kevin P. Kirkman, Johannes M. H. Knops, Kimberly J. La Pierre, Rebecca L. Mcculley

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Biodiversity is declining in many local communities while also becoming increasingly homogenized across space. Experiments show that local plant species loss reduces ecosystem functioning and services, but the role of spatial homogenization of community composition and the potential interaction between diversity at different scales in maintaining ecosystem functioning remains unclear, especially when many functions are considered (ecosystem multifunctionality). We present an analysis of eight ecosystem functions measured in 65 grasslands worldwide. We find that more diverse grasslands—those with both species-rich local communities (α-diversity) and large compositional differences among localities (β-diversity)—had higher levels of multifunctionality. Moreover, α- and β-diversity synergistically affected …