Biodiversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality across trophic levels and habitats

The importance of biodiversity for the integrated functioning of ecosystems remains unclear because most evidence comes from analyses of biodiversity's effect on individual functions. Here we show that the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem function become more important as more functions are considered. We present the first systematic investigation of biodiversity's effect on ecosystem multifunctionality across multiple taxa, trophic levels and habitats using a comprehensive database of 94 manipulations of species richness. We show that species-rich communities maintained multiple functions at higher levels than depauperate ones. These effects were stronger for herbivore biodiversity than for plant…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 1050680
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Award: FZT 118
• DZ
  Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig

  Award: FZT 118