Journal Article

Anthropogenic environmental changes affect ecosystem stability via biodiversity

Tilman, David, Reich5, Peter B., Seabloom, Eric W., Hautier, Yann, Isbell, Forest, Borer, Elizabeth T.

2015

Overview

Human-driven environmental changes may simultaneously affect the biodiversity, productivity, and stability of Earth's ecosystems, but there is no consensus on the causal relationships linking these variables. Data from 12 multiyear experiments that manipulate important anthropogenic drivers, including plant diversity, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, fire, herbivory, and water, show that each driver influences ecosystem productivity. However, the stability of ecosystem productivity is only changed by those drivers that alter biodiversity, with a given decrease in plant species numbers leading to a quantitatively similar decrease in ecosystem stability regardless of which driver caused the biodiversity loss. These results suggest that changes in biodiversity caused by drivers of environmental change may be a major factor determining how global environmental changes affect ecosystem stability.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Anthropogenic factors / Biodiversity / Biodiversity loss / Carbon dioxide / Climate change / Ecological function / Ecosystem stability / Ecosystem studies / Ecosystems / Environmental changes / Environmental impact / Environmental restoration / Grasslands / Herbivory / Human influences / Nitrogen / Plant diversity / Plant species / Plants (organisms) / Productivity / Species diversity / Stability / Terrestrial ecosystems