Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 20, Issue 11, Pages 1414-1426Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12849
Keywords
Functional diversity; FunDivEUROPE; growing season length; multifunctionality; resource heterogeneity; species richness; water availability
Categories
Funding
- German Research Foundation [FZT 118]
- European Union Seventh Programme (FP7) [265171]
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
- Max-Planck-Society
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The importance of biodiversity in supporting ecosystem functioning is generally well accepted. However, most evidence comes from small-scale studies, and scaling-up patterns of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (B-EF) remains challenging, in part because the importance of environmental factors in shaping B-EF relations is poorly understood. Using a forest research platform in which 26 ecosystem functions were measured along gradients of tree species richness in six regions across Europe, we investigated the extent and the potential drivers of context dependency of B-EF relations. Despite considerable variation in species richness effects across the continent, we found a tendency for stronger B-EF relations in drier climates as well as in areas with longer growing seasons and more functionally diverse tree species. The importance of water availability in driving context dependency suggests that as water limitation increases under climate change, biodiversity may become even more important to support high levels of functioning in European forests.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available