Authors: Duffy, J. Emmett; Cardinale, Bradley J.¹; France, Kristin E.²; McIntyre, Peter B.³; Thébault, Elisa⁴; Loreau, Michel⁵

Source: Ecology Letters, Volume 10, Number 6, June 2007 , pp. 522-538(17)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Understanding how biodiversity affects functioning of ecosystems requires integrating diversity within trophic levels (horizontal diversity) and across trophic levels (vertical diversity, including food chain length and omnivory). We review theoretical and experimental progress toward this goal. Generally, experiments show that biomass and resource use increase similarly with horizontal diversity of either producers or consumers. Among prey, higher diversity often increases resistance to predation, due to increased probability of including inedible species and reduced efficiency of specialist predators confronted with diverse prey. Among predators, changing diversity can cascade to affect plant biomass, but the strength and sign of this effect depend on the degree of omnivory and prey behaviour. Horizontal and vertical diversity also interact: adding a trophic level can qualitatively change diversity effects at adjacent levels. Multitrophic interactions produce a richer variety of diversity-functioning relationships than the monotonic changes predicted for single trophic levels. This complexity depends on the degree of consumer dietary generalism, trade-offs between competitive ability and resistance to predation, intraguild predation and openness to migration. Although complementarity and selection effects occur in both animals and plants, few studies have conclusively documented the mechanisms mediating diversity effects. Understanding how biodiversity affects functioning of complex ecosystems will benefit from integrating theory and experiments with simulations and network-based approaches.

Keywords: Ecosystem functioning; grazing; horizontal diversity; niche breadth; top-down control; trophic cascade; vertical diversity

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01037.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA 2: School of Marine Science and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, VA 23062-1346, USA 3: Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45345, USA 4: NERC Centre for Population Biology, Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK 5: Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada H3A 1B1

Publication date: 2007-06-01

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