Multitrophic interaction networks mediate biodiversity effects on ecosystem multifunctionality
Abstract
Abstract Biodiversity loss threatens the multifunctionality of ecosystems on which human well-being ultimately depends. Multitrophic species interactions may be key to explaining the ecological consequences of biodiversity loss, but research explicitly linking species interactions and ecosystem multifunctionality remains rare. To fill this gap, we synthesize data from a large-scale biodiversity experiment established in 2009 in subtropical China that manipulates tree species richness (1-24 species). We integrate 11 types of antagonistic and mutualistic species interaction networks, and 34 ecosystem functions associated with a diverse set of species and trophic levels. Our analysis highlights that characterizing the structure of species interaction networks is invaluable for assessing interaction-mediated biodiversity effects and underlying mechanisms. Positive effects of network size align with expected benefits of multitrophic diversity for ecosystem multifunctionality. Positive effects of niche overlap among interacting species and negative effects of highly connected species (i.e. high linkage density) reveal additional, interaction-mediated drivers. The effects of niche overlap suggest benefits of functionally similar species, and the effects of linkage density underscore the importance of specialized interactions in promoting ecosystem multifunctionality. These findings emphasize that ecosystem service provisioning does not only rely on biodiversity across trophic levels, but to a similar degree on how species interact.
Article Details
Authors (38)
Georg Albert
Michael Staab
Arong Luo
Perttu Anttonen
Rémy Beugnon
Simone Cesarz
Jingting Chen
Nico Eisenhauer
Alexandra Erfmeier
Felix Fornoff
Pengfei Guo
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , , , ,
Werner Härdtle
Lydia Hönig
Lin Jiang
Alexandra-Maria Klein
Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Yi Li
Yingbin Li
Qi Li
Lingli Liu
Keping Ma
Goddert von Oheimb
Institute of General Ecology and Environmental Protection, Technische Universität Dresden
Gemma Rutten
Thomas Scholten
Steffen Seitz
Bala Singavarapu
Stefan Trogisch
Ming-Qiang Wang
Pandeng Wang
Donghao Wu
Tesfaye Wubet
Xian Yang
Mingjian Yu
Naili Zhang
Bernhard Schmid
Helge Bruelheide
Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Xiaojuan Liu
Spin-X Institute, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices
Chao-Dong Zhu
Andreas Schuldt