The productivity-biodiversity relationship varies across diversity dimensions

Understanding the processes that drive the dramatic changes in biodiversity along the productivity gradient remains a major challenge. Insight from simple, bivariate relationships so far has been limited. We combined >11,000 community plots in the French Alps with a molecular phylogeny and trait...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2019-12, Vol.10 (1), p.5691-11, Article 5691
Main Authors: Brun, Philipp, Zimmermann, Niklaus E., Graham, Catherine H., Lavergne, Sébastien, Pellissier, Loïc, Münkemüller, Tamara, Thuiller, Wilfried
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/158/2445
704/158/670
Biodiversity
Forests
France
Grassland
Humanities and Social Sciences
Life Sciences
multidisciplinary
Niches
Phylogeny
Plant Dispersal
Plant diversity
Plants - genetics
Productivity
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Species diversity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Understanding the processes that drive the dramatic changes in biodiversity along the productivity gradient remains a major challenge. Insight from simple, bivariate relationships so far has been limited. We combined >11,000 community plots in the French Alps with a molecular phylogeny and trait information for >1200 plant species to simultaneously investigate the relationships between all major biodiversity dimensions and satellite-sensed productivity. Using an approach that tests for differential effects of species dominance, species similarity and the interplay between phylogeny and traits, we demonstrate that unimodal productivity–biodiversity relationships only dominate for taxonomic diversity. In forests, trait and phylogenetic diversity typically increase with productivity, while in grasslands, relationships shift from unimodal to declining with greater land-use intensity. High productivity may increase trait/phylogenetic diversity in ecosystems with few external constraints (forests) by promoting complementary strategies, but under external constraints (managed grasslands) successful strategies are similar and thus the best competitors may be selected. The relationships between ecosystem productivity and plant diversity are complex. Here, the authors show that sites with high productivity typically have reduced species diversity but high functional and phylogenetic diversity, potentially owing to the creation of additional niche space.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-13678-1