title: Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands.
abstract: Experiments suggest that biodiversity enhances the ability of ecosystems to maintain multiple functions, such as carbon storage, productivity, and the buildup of nutrient pools (multifunctionality). However, the relationship between biodiversity and multifunctionality has never been assessed globally in natural ecosystems. We report here on a global empirical study relating plant species richness and abiotic factors to multifunctionality in drylands, which collectively cover 41% of Earth's land surface and support over 38% of the human population. Multifunctionality was positively and significantly related to species richness. The best-fitting models accounted for over 55% of the variation in multifunctionality and always included species richness as a predictor variable. Our results suggest that the preservation of plant biodiversity is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands.
authors.affiliation: Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Calle Tulipán Sin Número, 28933 Móstoles, Spain. fernando.maestre@urjc.es
authors.forename: Fernando T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Maestre
authors.forename: José L
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authors.lastname: Quero
authors.forename: Nicholas J
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authors.lastname: Escolar
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authors.forename: Tulio
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authors.lastname: Ghiloufi
authors.forename: Susana
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authors.lastname: Gómez-González
authors.forename: Julio R
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authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
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authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: Xuewen
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authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Elisabeth
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authors.lastname: Huber-Sannwald
authors.forename: Mohammad
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authors.lastname: Jankju
authors.forename: Maria
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authors.lastname: Miriti
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authors.lastname: Monerris
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authors.forename: Vicente
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authors.lastname: Prina
authors.forename: Eduardo
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authors.lastname: Pucheta
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authors.lastname: Ramírez-Collantes
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mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010944:Plants; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013696:Temperature