title: Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity.
abstract: As biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, an important current scientific challenge is to understand and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss. Here, we develop a theory that predicts the temporal variability of community biomass from the properties of individual component species in monoculture. Our theory shows that biodiversity stabilises ecosystems through three main mechanisms: (1) asynchrony in species' responses to environmental fluctuations, (2) reduced demographic stochasticity due to overyielding in species mixtures and (3) reduced observation error (including spatial and sampling variability). Parameterised with empirical data from four long-term grassland biodiversity experiments, our prediction explained 22-75% of the observed variability, and captured much of the effect of species richness. Richness stabilised communities mainly by increasing community biomass and reducing the strength of demographic stochasticity. Our approach calls for a re-evaluation of the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem stability.
authors: Redpath Museum, McGill University, 859 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6, Canada. claire.demazancourt@ecoex-moulis.cnrs.fr
authors: Claire
authors: C
authors: de Mazancourt
authors: Forest
authors: F
authors: Isbell
authors: Allen
authors: A
authors: Larocque
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Berendse
authors: Enrica
authors: E
authors: De Luca
authors: James B
authors: JB
authors: Grace
authors: Bart
authors: B
authors: Haegeman
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Wayne Polley
authors: Christiane
authors: C
authors: Roscher
authors: Bernhard
authors: B
authors: Schmid
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Tilman
authors: Jasper
authors: J
authors: van Ruijven
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Weigelt
authors: Brian J
authors: BJ
authors: Wilsey
authors: Michel
authors: M
authors: Loreau
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017753:Ecosystem; D005858:Germany; D008910:Minnesota; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009426:Netherlands; D006109:Poaceae; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013781:Texas