Consistent stabilizing effects of plant diversity across spatial scales and climatic gradients

Maowei Liang; Benjamin Baiser; Lauren M Hallett; Yann Hautier; Lin Jiang; Michel Loreau; Sydne Record; Eric R Sokol; Phoebe L Zarnetske; Shaopeng Wang

doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01868-y

Consistent stabilizing effects of plant diversity across spatial scales and climatic gradients

Nat Ecol Evol. 2022 Nov;6(11):1669-1675. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01868-y. Epub 2022 Sep 19.

Authors

Maowei Liang¹, Benjamin Baiser², Lauren M Hallett³, Yann Hautier⁴, Lin Jiang⁵, Michel Loreau⁶, Sydne Record⁷, Eric R Sokol^{8

9}, Phoebe L Zarnetske^{10

11}, Shaopeng Wang¹²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, P. R. China.
² Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
³ Department of Biology and Environmental Studies Program, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
⁴ Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁵ School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁶ Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France.
⁷ Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA.
⁸ National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Battelle, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁹ Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
¹¹ Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
¹² Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, P. R. China. shaopeng.wang@pku.edu.cn.

PMID: 36123533
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01868-y

Abstract

Biodiversity has widely been documented to enhance local community stability but whether such stabilizing effects of biodiversity extend to broader scales remains elusive. Here, we investigated the relationships between biodiversity and community stability in natural plant communities from quadrat (1 m²) to plot (400 m²) and regional (5-214 km²) scales and across broad climatic conditions, using an extensive plant community dataset from the National Ecological Observatory Network. We found that plant diversity provided consistent stabilizing effects on total community abundance across three nested spatial scales and climatic gradients. The strength of the stabilizing effects of biodiversity increased modestly with spatial scale and decreased as precipitation seasonality increased. Our findings illustrate the generality of diversity-stability theory across scales and climatic gradients, which provides a robust framework for understanding ecosystem responses to biodiversity and climate changes.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biodiversity*
Climate Change
Ecosystem*
Plants