Plant diversity reduces satellite-observed phenological variability in wetlands at a national scale

Iryna Dronova; Sophie Taddeo; Kendall Harris

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abl8214

Plant diversity reduces satellite-observed phenological variability in wetlands at a national scale

Sci Adv. 2022 Jul 22;8(29):eabl8214. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abl8214. Epub 2022 Jul 22.

Authors

Iryna Dronova^{1

2}, Sophie Taddeo³, Kendall Harris^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Rausser College of Natural Resources, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
² Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, College of Environmental Design, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
³ Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL 60022, USA.
⁴ San Francisco Estuary Institute, Richmond, CA 94804, USA.

Abstract

Plant diversity may enhance stability of ecosystem function and its satellite-derived indicators. However, its potential to stabilize phenology, or seasonal changes in plant function, is little understood, especially in understudied systems with high biodiversity potential such as wetlands. Using a large sample of U.S. wetlands and a new satellite-based indicator of phenological stability, we found that plant diversity was negatively associated with interannual phenological variability after controlling for covariates representing climate, site conditions, and spectral fluctuations. Furthermore, plant diversity and covariates better explained phenological variability than stability in annually summarized satellite-based biomass indicators used by earlier studies. Last, a subsequent path analysis indicated that phenological variability could mediate plant diversity relationship with the latter stability. Our results suggest that contributions of plant diversity to seasonality of ecosystems may have a stabilizing role in their functioning and offer a new basis for assessing biodiversity-stability relationships across broad geographic extents.