Functional- and abundance-based mechanisms explain diversity loss due to N fertilization

Human activities have increased N availability dramatically in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Extensive research demonstrates that local plant species diversity generally declines in response to nutrient enrichment, yet the mechanisms for this decline remain unclear. Based on an analysis of >900 species responses from 34 N-fertilization experiments across nine terrestrial ecosystems in North America, we show that both trait-neutral and trait-based mechanisms operate simultaneously to influence diversity loss as production increases. Rare species were often lost because of soil fertilization, randomly with respect to traits. The risk of species loss due to fertilization ranged from >60% for the rarest…

• NS
  National Science Foundation