Habitat diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality : The importance of direct and indirect effects
(2017) In Science Advances 3(2).- Abstract
- Ecosystems worldwide are facing habitat homogenization due to human activities. Although it is commonly proposed that such habitat homogenization can have negative repercussions for ecosystem functioning, this question has yet to receive explicit scientific attention. We expand on the framework for evaluating the functional consequences of biodiversity loss by scaling up from the level of species to the level of the entire habitats. Just as species diversity generally fosters ecosystem functioning through positive interspecies interactions, we hypothesize that different habitats within ecosystems can facilitate each other through structural complementarity and through exchange of material and energy across habitats. We show that... (More)
- Ecosystems worldwide are facing habitat homogenization due to human activities. Although it is commonly proposed that such habitat homogenization can have negative repercussions for ecosystem functioning, this question has yet to receive explicit scientific attention. We expand on the framework for evaluating the functional consequences of biodiversity loss by scaling up from the level of species to the level of the entire habitats. Just as species diversity generally fosters ecosystem functioning through positive interspecies interactions, we hypothesize that different habitats within ecosystems can facilitate each other through structural complementarity and through exchange of material and energy across habitats. We show that experimental ecosystems comprised of a diversity of habitats show higher levels of multiple ecosystem functions than ecosystems with low habitat diversity. Our results demonstrate that the effect of habitat diversity on multifunctionality varies with season; it has direct effects on ecosystem functioning in summer and indirect effects, via changes in species diversity, in autumn, but no effect in spring. We propose that joint consideration of habitat diversity and species diversity will prove valuable for both environmental management and basic research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/0247f70b-48da-4b4b-b28f-bfb4d6325ef5
- author
- Alsterberg, Christian LU ; Roger, Fabian LU ; Sundbäck, Kristina ; Juhanson, Jaanis ; Hulth, Stefan ; Hallin, Sara and Gamfeldt, Lars
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-02-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Marine, Sediment, microbial diversity, SEM
- in
- Science Advances
- volume
- 3
- issue
- 2
- article number
- e1601475
- pages
- 9 pages
- publisher
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:28246634
- scopus:85041738042
- ISSN
- 2375-2548
- DOI
- 10.1126/sciadv.1601475
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 0247f70b-48da-4b4b-b28f-bfb4d6325ef5
- date added to LUP
- 2018-04-16 15:57:59
- date last changed
- 2022-04-17 20:01:16
@article{0247f70b-48da-4b4b-b28f-bfb4d6325ef5, abstract = {{Ecosystems worldwide are facing habitat homogenization due to human activities. Although it is commonly proposed that such habitat homogenization can have negative repercussions for ecosystem functioning, this question has yet to receive explicit scientific attention. We expand on the framework for evaluating the functional consequences of biodiversity loss by scaling up from the level of species to the level of the entire habitats. Just as species diversity generally fosters ecosystem functioning through positive interspecies interactions, we hypothesize that different habitats within ecosystems can facilitate each other through structural complementarity and through exchange of material and energy across habitats. We show that experimental ecosystems comprised of a diversity of habitats show higher levels of multiple ecosystem functions than ecosystems with low habitat diversity. Our results demonstrate that the effect of habitat diversity on multifunctionality varies with season; it has direct effects on ecosystem functioning in summer and indirect effects, via changes in species diversity, in autumn, but no effect in spring. We propose that joint consideration of habitat diversity and species diversity will prove valuable for both environmental management and basic research.}}, author = {{Alsterberg, Christian and Roger, Fabian and Sundbäck, Kristina and Juhanson, Jaanis and Hulth, Stefan and Hallin, Sara and Gamfeldt, Lars}}, issn = {{2375-2548}}, keywords = {{Marine; Sediment; microbial diversity; SEM}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{02}}, number = {{2}}, publisher = {{American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}}, series = {{Science Advances}}, title = {{Habitat diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality : The importance of direct and indirect effects}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601475}}, doi = {{10.1126/sciadv.1601475}}, volume = {{3}}, year = {{2017}}, }