title: From selection to complementarity: shifts in the causes of biodiversity-productivity relationships in a long-term biodiversity experiment.
abstract: In a 10-year (1996-2005) biodiversity experiment, the mechanisms underlying the increasingly positive effect of biodiversity on plant biomass production shifted from sampling to complementarity over time. The effect of diversity on plant biomass was associated primarily with the accumulation of higher total plant nitrogen pools (N g m-2) and secondarily with more efficient N use at higher diversity. The accumulation of N in living plant biomass was significantly increased by the presence of legumes, C4 grasses, and their combined presence. Thus, these results provide clear evidence for the increasing effects of complementarity through time and suggest a mechanism whereby diversity increases complementarity through the increased input and retention of N, a commonly limiting nutrient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, University of Minnesota, St Paul 55108, USA. fargione@purdue.edu
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fargione
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tilman
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dybzinski
authors.forename: Janneke Hille Ris
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lambers
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: W Stanley
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Harpole
authors.forename: Johannes M H
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Knops
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loreau
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism; D012641:Selection, Genetic
chemical_list: D009584:Nitrogen