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Not even wrong: Comment by Loreau and Hector
Author(s) -
Loreau Michel,
Hector Andy
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1002/ecy.2794
Subject(s) - michel foucault , citation , ecology , art history , library science , computer science , history , biology , law , political science , politics
In a new paper entitled "Not even wrong: The spurious measurement of biodiversity's effects on ecosystem functioning", Pillai & Gouhier (2019) question the validity of the additive partition of biodiversity effects that we proposed 18 years ago (Loreau and Hector 2001) and that has become a classic in the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) research field. Here we show that their critique misinterprets the goal of the BEF research program; in effect, they propose another research program that is both fundamentally different from BEF and logically inconsistent. In particular, they seek to measure biodiversity effects beyond and above those of species coexistence, an impossible task because biodiversity and coexistence are inseparable concepts. Therefore, once the direct and indirect effects of species coexistence are fully accounted for, the residual effect of biodiversity that they propose to study should be zero. We conclude that BEF research should rejuvenate and develop in new directions, but this effort will be successful only if it builds upon the foundations laid down by past research. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.