Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity

• Published in: Ecology letters Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 617 - 625
• Main Authors: de Mazancourt, Claire, Isbell, Forest, Larocque, Allen, Berendse, Frank, De Luca, Enrica, Grace, James B., Haegeman, Bart, Wayne Polley, H., Roscher, Christiane, Schmid, Bernhard, Tilman, David, van Ruijven, Jasper, Weigelt, Alexandra, Wilsey, Brian J., Loreau, Michel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2013; Blackwell; Wiley
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biodiversity; Biodiversity loss; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; Community composition; Community ecology; competitive communities; Computer Simulation; consequences; demographic stochasticity; diversity; dynamics; Ecology, environment; Ecosystem; Ecosystem biology; Ecosystem stability; Ecosystems; environmental stochasticity; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Germany; Grasslands; Life Sciences; Minnesota; Models, Biological; Models, Theoretical; Monoculture; Netherlands; overyielding; Poaceae; population; Population Dynamics; prediction; productivity; species interactions; Species richness; stability; Stochastic Processes; Synecology; temporal stability; Texas; time-series; variability; Netherlands; Minnesota; Texas; Germany; Community structure; overyielding; Demography; Stability; environmental stochasticity; Ecosystem; demographic stochasticity; prediction; Biodiversity; biodiversity; stability
• ISSN: 1461-023X; 1461-0248; 1461-0248
• DOI: 10.1111/ele.12088

As biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, an important current scientific challenge is to understand and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss. Here, we develop a theory that predicts the temporal variability of community biomass from the properties of individual component species in monoculture. Our theory shows that biodiversity stabilises ecosystems through three main mechanisms: (1) asynchrony in species’ responses to environmental fluctuations, (2) reduced demographic stochasticity due to overyielding in species mixtures and (3) reduced observation error (including spatial and sampling variability). Parameterised with empirical data from four long‐term grassland biodiversity experiments, our prediction explained 22–75% of the observed variability, and captured much of the effect of species richness. Richness stabilised communities mainly by increasing community biomass and reducing the strength of demographic stochasticity. Our approach calls for a re‐evaluation of the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem stability.