Differential responses and mechanisms of productivity following experimental species loss scenarios

Differential responses and mechanisms of productivity following experimental species loss scenarios

Experiments that simulate nonrandom species loss from natural communities can offer a fundamentally different understanding of the impacts of species loss on ecosystem function and their underlying mechanisms compared to seeding experiments where species are randomly assembled from a local species p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia Vol. 183; no. 3; pp. 785 - 795
Main Authors: Sasaki, Takehiro, Yoshihara, Yu, Takahashi, Masaya, Byambatsetseg, Lkhagvasuren, Futahashi, Risa, Nyambayar, Dashzeveg, Suyama, Yoshihisa
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Science + Business Media 01-03-2017
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY – ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Dry matter
Ecological function
Ecology
Ecosystem
Ecosystems
Grassland
Grasslands
Hydrology/Water Resources
Life Sciences
Plant Leaves
Plant Sciences
Productivity
Functional complementarity
Dominance reorganization
Functional compensation
Functional diversity
Rao’s quadratic entropy
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Experiments that simulate nonrandom species loss from natural communities can offer a fundamentally different understanding of the impacts of species loss on ecosystem function and their underlying mechanisms compared to seeding experiments where species are randomly assembled from a local species pool. We examined the mechanisms underlying changes in primary productivity following experimental species loss scenarios in Mongolian grassland. The range of species loss scenarios was based on natural patterns of species abundance that reflect the species’ contributions to ecosystem processes. We found a clear reduction in productivity due to species loss only when species were lost randomly. Grassland productivity was relatively robust following nonrandom species loss scenarios. Even in the context of density compensation, the decrease in dominant trait values for leaf height would explain the reduction in productivity with random species loss. In contrast, the maintenance of dominant trait values of key productivity traits such as leaf dry matter content and leaf height might contribute to the maintenance of productivity in response to nonrandom species loss. Our experiment demonstrated that the responses and mechanisms of primary productivity to species loss differ according to the scenarios of species loss in natural grassland communities. The effects of diversity on productivity might be weak in mature natural systems when species loss is nonrandom. Understanding the consequences of realistic species loss on ecosystem functioning based on field-based removal experiments will give insights into real conservation strategies in the face of global biodiversity change.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/s00442-016-3806-z