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The results of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments are realistic

View ORCID ProfileMalte Jochum, Markus Fischer, Forest Isbell, Christiane Roscher, Fons van der Plas, Steffen Boch, Gerhard Boenisch, Nina Buchmann, Jane A. Catford, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Gerd Gleixner, Norbert Hölzel, Jens Kattge, Valentin H. Klaus, Till Kleinebecker, Markus Lange, Gaëtane Le Provost, Sebastian T. Meyer, Rafael Molina-Venegas, Liesje Mommer, Yvonne Oelmann, Caterina Penone, Daniel Prati, Peter B. Reich, Abiel Rindisbacher, Deborah Schäfer, Stefan Scheu, Bernhard Schmid, David Tilman, Teja Tscharntke, Anja Vogel, Cameron Wagg, Alexandra Weigelt, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Wolfgang Wilcke, Peter Manning
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/725812
Malte Jochum
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
3Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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  • ORCID record for Malte Jochum
  • For correspondence: malte.jochum@idiv.de
Markus Fischer
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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Forest Isbell
4Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Ave, Saint Paul MN 55108
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Christiane Roscher
5UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department Physiological Diversity, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Fons van der Plas
6Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Steffen Boch
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
7WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, Zürcherstr. 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
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Gerhard Boenisch
8Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knoell Str. 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
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Nina Buchmann
9Institute for Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstr. 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
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Jane A. Catford
10Department of Geography, King’s College London, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG, UK
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Jeannine Cavender-Bares
4Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Ave, Saint Paul MN 55108
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Anne Ebeling
11Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
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Nico Eisenhauer
2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
3Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Gerd Gleixner
8Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knoell Str. 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
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Norbert Hölzel
12Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
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Jens Kattge
2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
8Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knoell Str. 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
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Valentin H. Klaus
9Institute for Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstr. 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
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Till Kleinebecker
13Institute of Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, Giessen University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany
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Markus Lange
8Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knoell Str. 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
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Gaëtane Le Provost
14Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBIK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
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Sebastian T. Meyer
15Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, Germany
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Rafael Molina-Venegas
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
16Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Madrid, Spain
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Liesje Mommer
17Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, PO box 47; 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands
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Yvonne Oelmann
18Geoecology, Geoscience Department, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 19-23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
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Caterina Penone
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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Daniel Prati
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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Peter B. Reich
19Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, 1530 Cleveland Avenue N, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
20Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia
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Abiel Rindisbacher
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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Deborah Schäfer
1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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Stefan Scheu
21JF Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
22Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, Von-Siebold Str. 8, University of Goettingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
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Bernhard Schmid
23Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
24Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China
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David Tilman
25Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
26Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
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Teja Tscharntke
27Agroecology, Dept. of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Grisebachstrasse 6, 37077 Göttingen
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Anja Vogel
2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
3Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
11Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
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Cameron Wagg
28Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zürich CH-8047, Switzerland
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Alexandra Weigelt
2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
29Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Wolfgang W. Weisser
15Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, Germany
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Wolfgang Wilcke
30Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Reinhard-Baumeister-Platz 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
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Peter Manning
14Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBIK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
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Summary

A large body of research shows that biodiversity loss can reduce ecosystem functioning, thus providing support for the conservation of biological diversity1–4. Much of the evidence for this relationship is drawn from biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments (hereafter: biodiversity experiments), in which biodiversity loss is simulated by randomly assembling communities of varying species diversity, and ecosystem functions are measured5–9. This random assembly has led some ecologists to question the relevance of biodiversity experiments to real-world ecosystems, where community assembly may often be non-random and influenced by external drivers, such as climate or land-use intensification10–18. Despite these repeated criticisms, there has been no comprehensive, quantitative assessment of how experimental and real-world plant communities really differ, and whether these differences invalidate the experimental results. Here, we compare data from two of the largest and longest-running grassland biodiversity experiments globally (Jena Experiment, Germany; BioDIV, USA) to related real-world grassland plant communities in terms of their taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity and functional-trait composition. We found that plant communities of biodiversity experiments have greater variance in these compositional features than their real-world counterparts, covering almost all of the variation of the real-world communities (82-96%) while also containing community types that are not currently observed in the real world. We then re-analysed a subset of experimental data that included only ecologically-realistic communities, i.e. those comparable to real-world communities. For ten out of twelve biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, biodiversity effects did not differ significantly between the full dataset of biodiversity experiments and the ecologically-realistic subset of experimental communities. This demonstrates that the results of biodiversity experiments are largely insensitive to the inclusion/exclusion of unrealistic communities. By bridging the gap between experimental and real-world studies, these results demonstrate the validity of inferences from biodiversity experiments, a key step in translating their results into specific recommendations for real-world biodiversity management.

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Posted August 05, 2019.
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The results of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments are realistic
Malte Jochum, Markus Fischer, Forest Isbell, Christiane Roscher, Fons van der Plas, Steffen Boch, Gerhard Boenisch, Nina Buchmann, Jane A. Catford, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Gerd Gleixner, Norbert Hölzel, Jens Kattge, Valentin H. Klaus, Till Kleinebecker, Markus Lange, Gaëtane Le Provost, Sebastian T. Meyer, Rafael Molina-Venegas, Liesje Mommer, Yvonne Oelmann, Caterina Penone, Daniel Prati, Peter B. Reich, Abiel Rindisbacher, Deborah Schäfer, Stefan Scheu, Bernhard Schmid, David Tilman, Teja Tscharntke, Anja Vogel, Cameron Wagg, Alexandra Weigelt, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Wolfgang Wilcke, Peter Manning
bioRxiv 725812; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/725812
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The results of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments are realistic
Malte Jochum, Markus Fischer, Forest Isbell, Christiane Roscher, Fons van der Plas, Steffen Boch, Gerhard Boenisch, Nina Buchmann, Jane A. Catford, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Gerd Gleixner, Norbert Hölzel, Jens Kattge, Valentin H. Klaus, Till Kleinebecker, Markus Lange, Gaëtane Le Provost, Sebastian T. Meyer, Rafael Molina-Venegas, Liesje Mommer, Yvonne Oelmann, Caterina Penone, Daniel Prati, Peter B. Reich, Abiel Rindisbacher, Deborah Schäfer, Stefan Scheu, Bernhard Schmid, David Tilman, Teja Tscharntke, Anja Vogel, Cameron Wagg, Alexandra Weigelt, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Wolfgang Wilcke, Peter Manning
bioRxiv 725812; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/725812

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