Integrating long-term biodiversity change into biodiversity-ecosystem functioning studies.

Abstract

Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments seek to improve predictions of how biodiversity change affects ecosystem functioning. Bridging biodiversity change research with BEF experiments can accelerate these efforts. Diverse observational and experimental approaches for detecting and attributing biodiversity changes offer opportunities to re-analyze data from existing BEF experiments and design new ones. This integration helps us examine the effects of all biodiversity-change scenarios-species loss, gain, and turnover. We propose a mechanistic framework for experiments that manipulate both biodiversity and environmental conditions. The framework reveals how environment-driven biodiversity changes alter ecosystem functioning by identifying how species identity and interactions separately affect ecosystem functions. Integrating the fields of biodiversity change and BEF improves our understanding of the causes and functional consequences of biodiversity change.