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Contrasting biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships in phylogenetic and functional diversity
Author(s) -
Steudel Bastian,
Hallmann Christine,
Lorenz Maike,
Abrahamczyk Stefan,
Prinz Kathleen,
Herrfurth Cornelia,
Feussner Ivo,
Martini Johannes W. R.,
Kessler Michael
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.14054
Subject(s) - species richness , phylogenetic diversity , biodiversity , phylogenetic tree , ecology , biology , ecosystem , species diversity , biochemistry , gene
Summary It is well known that ecosystem functioning is positively influenced by biodiversity. Most biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiments have measured biodiversity based on species richness or phylogenetic relationships. However, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that ecosystem functioning should be more closely related to functional diversity than to species richness. We applied different metrics of biodiversity in an artificial biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiment using 64 species of green microalgae in combinations of two to 16 species. We found that phylogenetic and functional diversity were positively correlated with biomass overyield, driven by their strong correlation with species richness. At low species richness, no significant correlation between overyield and functional and phylogenetic diversity was found. However, at high species richness (16 species), we found a positive relationship of overyield with functional diversity and a negative relationship with phylogenetic diversity. We show that negative phylogenetic diversity–ecosystem functioning relationships can result from interspecific growth inhibition. The opposing performances of facilitation (functional diversity) and inhibition (phylogenetic diversity) we observed at the 16 species level suggest that phylogenetic diversity is not always a good proxy for functional diversity and that results from experiments with low species numbers may underestimate negative species interactions.