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Overyielding in experimental grassland communities – irrespective of species pool or spatial scale
Author(s) -
Roscher Christiane,
Temperton Vicky M.,
SchererLorenzen Michael,
Schmitz Martin,
Schumacher Jens,
Schmid Bernhard,
Buchmann Nina,
Weisser Wolfgang W.,
Schulze ErnstDetlef
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00736.x
Subject(s) - species richness , monoculture , dominance (genetics) , biodiversity , biology , ecology , grassland , spatial ecology , productivity , biochemistry , macroeconomics , economics , gene
In a large integrated biodiversity project (‘The Jena Experiment’ in Germany) we established two experiments, one with a pool of 60 plant species that ranged broadly from dominant to subordinate competitors on large 20 × 20 m and small 3.5 × 3.5 m plots (= main experiment), and one with a pool of nine potentially dominant species on small 3.5 × 3.5 m plots (= dominance experiment). We found identical positive species richness–aboveground productivity relationships in the main experiment at both scales. This result suggests that scaling up, at least over the short term, is appropriate in interpreting the implications of such experiments for larger‐scale patterns. The species richness–productivity relationship was more pronounced in the experiment with dominant species (46.7 and 82.6% yield increase compared to mean monoculture, respectively). Additionally, transgressive overyielding occurred more frequently in the dominance experiment (67.7% of cases) than in the main experiment (23.4% of cases). Additive partitioning and relative yield total analyses showed that both complementarity and selection effects contributed to the positive net biodiversity effect.