title: Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes.
abstract: It remains unclear whether biodiversity buffers ecosystems against climate extremes, which are becoming increasingly frequent worldwide. Early results suggested that the ecosystem productivity of diverse grassland plant communities was more resistant, changing less during drought, and more resilient, recovering more quickly after drought, than that of depauperate communities. However, subsequent experimental tests produced mixed results. Here we use data from 46 experiments that manipulated grassland plant diversity to test whether biodiversity provides resistance during and resilience after climate events. We show that biodiversity increased ecosystem resistance for a broad range of climate events, including wet or dry, moderate or extreme, and brief or prolonged events. Across all studies and climate events, the productivity of low-diversity communities with one or two species changed by approximately 50% during climate events, whereas that of high-diversity communities with 16-32 species was more resistant, changing by only approximately 25%. By a year after each climate event, ecosystem productivity had often fully recovered, or overshot, normal levels of productivity in both high- and low-diversity communities, leading to no detectable dependence of ecosystem resilience on biodiversity. Our results suggest that biodiversity mainly stabilizes ecosystem productivity, and productivity-dependent ecosystem services, by increasing resistance to climate events. Anthropogenic environmental changes that drive biodiversity loss thus seem likely to decrease ecosystem stability, and restoration of biodiversity to increase it, mainly by changing the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Forest
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Isbell
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Dylan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Craven
authors.affiliation: Ecological and Environmental Modelling Group, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Experimental Ecology Station, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Moulis 09200, France.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loreau
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.affiliation: Department of Biogeography, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beierkuhnlein
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), PO Box 50, 6700 AB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T Martijn
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Bezemer
authors.affiliation: Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonin
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06108 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bruelheide
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Enrica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Luca
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger Strasse 159, 07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ebeling
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA28PP, UK.
authors.forename: John N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.affiliation: USDA FS, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, RTP, North Carolina 27709, USA.
authors.forename: Qinfeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hautier
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hector
authors.affiliation: Disturbance Ecology, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jentsch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, D-17487 Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kreyling
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Vojtěch
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lanta
authors.affiliation: Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Bern, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pete
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Shahid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naeem
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pascal A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Niklaus
authors.affiliation: US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, Texas 76502, USA.
authors.forename: H Wayne
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Polley
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108 USA.|Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, New South Wales 2753, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Community Ecology, 06120 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roscher
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Eric W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Seabloom
authors.affiliation: Graduate Degree Program in Ecology and Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA.
authors.forename: Melinda D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Madhav P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Thakur
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.|Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106 USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tilman
authors.affiliation: Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Smyth Hall 0404, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Tracy
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), PO Box 50, 6700 AB Wageningen, The Netherlands.|Laboratory of Nematology, Wageningen University and Research Centre, PO Box 8123, 6700 ES Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wim H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: van der Putten
authors.affiliation: Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jasper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Ruijven
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weigelt
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Weisser
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilsey
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Nico
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenhauer
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004190:Disasters / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D065948:Grassland; D006802:Human Activities; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena