A global synthesis reveals biodiversity loss as a major driver of ecosystem change

Evidence is mounting that extinctions are altering key processes important to the productivity and sustainability of Earth's ecosystems. Further species loss will accelerate change in ecosystem processes, but it is unclear how these effects compare to the direct effects of other forms of environmental change that are both driving diversity loss and altering ecosystem function. Here we use a suite of meta-analyses of published data to show that the effects of species loss on productivity and decomposition--two processes important in all ecosystems--are of comparable magnitude to the effects of many other global environmental changes. In experiments, intermediate levels of species loss (21-40%) reduced plant production by 5-10%, comparable to previously documented effects of ultraviolet radiation and climate warming. Higher levels of extinction (41-60%) had effects rivalling those of ozone, acidification, elevated CO(2) and nutrient pollution. At intermediate levels, species loss generally had equal or greater effects on decomposition than did elevated CO(2) and nitrogen addition. The identity of species lost also had a large effect on changes in productivity and decomposition, generating a wide range of plausible outcomes for extinction. Despite the need for more studies on interactive effects of diversity loss and environmental changes, our analyses clearly show that the ecosystem consequences of local species loss are as quantitatively significant as the direct effects of several global change stressors that have mobilized major international concern and remediation efforts.     

放牧对荒漠草原群落多样性的影响

退化草地生态系统中物种多样性的严重丧失及其后果,至今仍缺乏有代表性的实验结论.放牧是人类施加于草原生态系统最主要的干扰因素,从荒漠草原群落多样性、植物功能群多样性以及物种多样性与生产力的关系3个方面综述相关研究进展.提出不同放牧制度对荒漠草原群落多样性、植物功能群多样性的影响过程和作用机制是研究荒漠草原利用与保护平衡的...     

Mangroves enhance the biomass of coral reef fish communities in the Caribbean

Mangrove forests are one of the world's most threatened tropical ecosystems with global loss exceeding 35% (ref. 1). Juvenile coral reef fish often inhabit mangroves, but the importance of these nurseries to reef fish population dynamics has not been quantified. Indeed, mangroves might be expected to have negligible influence on reef fish communities: juvenile fish can inhabit alternative habitats and fish populations may be regulated by other limiting factors such as larval supply or fishing. Here we show that mangroves are unexpectedly important, serving as an intermediate nursery habitat that may increase the survivorship of young fish. Mangroves in the Caribbean strongly influence the community structure of fish on neighbouring coral reefs. In addition, the biomass of several commercially important species is more than doubled when adult habitat is connected to mangroves. The largest herbivorous fish in the Atlantic, Scarus guacamaia, has a functional dependency on mangroves and has suffered local extinction after mangrove removal. Current rates of mangrove deforestation are likely to have severe deleterious consequences for the ecosystem function, fisheries productivity and resilience of reefs. Conservation efforts should protect connected corridors of mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs.     

Siliceous microplankton fluxes and seasonal variations in the central South China Sea during 1993-1995:monsoon climate and El Ni(n)o responses

Seasonal variations of radiolarian and diatom fluxes in the central South China Sea during 1993-1995 were overwhelmingly controlled by monsoon climate. Radiolarian and diatom increased obviously during the Northeast (from November to February) and Southwest (from June to September) monsoons and decreased during the periods between the monsoons. The change of circulation driven by the monsoons improved water exchange in the different areas that brought rich nutrient materials for the surface microplankton, thereby enhancing radiolarian and diatom fluxes. Variation of radiolarian flux coincided with organic carbon flux, surface primary and export productivities. High radiolarian flux corresponded to high surface primary productivity. Radiolarian and diatom fluxes raised abnormally during 1994-1995 could be attributed to the El Ni(n)o event during the period.     

厦门港小型浮游生物对可溶性活性磷吸收和再生通量的季节变化

用３２ＰＯ４３－同位素稀释法测定了厦门港小型浮游生物（＜２００μｍ）对可溶性活性磷（ＳＲＰ的吸收和再生通量；并同时测定了现场的Ｃｈｌａ、初级生产力和各种形态磷．厦门港ＳＲＰ吸收和再生通量有明显的季节变化，夏季最大、冬季最小，且ＳＲＰ通量与生源要素呈现协变性；表层（０．５ｍ）ＳＲＰ通量与Ｃｈｌａ成较好的正相关，ＳＲＰ通量的变化与浮游植物的消长密切相关．全年平均表层ＳＲＰ再生能满足初级生产磷吸收的４３．３％；底层（１６ｍ）再生与吸收比远大于１，ＳＲＰ的再生对初级生产的调控具有重要作用．表层全年平均ＳＲＰ的周转时间为８８．７５ｈ，７月ＳＲＰ最低，但其周转时间也最短仅为３．７ｈ，以最大程度地利用磷维持较高的初级生产力．较低的碳、磷同化原子比及较短的ＳＲＰ周转时间表明厦门港磷同化速率较高．     

Siliceous microplankton fluxes and seasonal variations in the central South China Sea during 1993–1995: monsoon climate and El Niño responses

Seasonal variations of radiolarian and diatom fluxes in the central South China Sea during 1993–1995 were overwhelmingly controlled by monsoon climate. Radiolarian and diatom increased obviously during the Northeast (from November to February) and Southwest (from June to September) monsoons and decreased during the periods between the monsoons. The change of circulation driven by the monsoons improved water exchange in the different areas that brought rich nutrient materials for the surface microplankton, thereby enhancing radiolarian and diatom fluxes. Variation of radiolarian flux coincided with organic carbon flux, surface primary and export productivities. High radiolarian flux corresponded to high surface primary productivity. Radiolarian and diatom fluxes raised abnormally during 1994–1995 could be attributed to the El Nino event during the period.     

Europe-wide reduction in primary productivity caused by the heat and drought in 2003

Future climate warming is expected to enhance plant growth in temperate ecosystems and to increase carbon sequestration. But although severe regional heatwaves may become more frequent in a changing climate, their impact on terrestrial carbon cycling is unclear. Here we report measurements of ecosystem carbon dioxide fluxes, remotely sensed radiation absorbed by plants, and country-level crop yields taken during the European heatwave in 2003. We use a terrestrial biosphere simulation model to assess continental-scale changes in primary productivity during 2003, and their consequences for the net carbon balance. We estimate a 30 per cent reduction in gross primary productivity over Europe, which resulted in a strong anomalous net source of carbon dioxide (0.5 Pg C yr(-1)) to the atmosphere and reversed the effect of four years of net ecosystem carbon sequestration. Our results suggest that productivity reduction in eastern and western Europe can be explained by rainfall deficit and extreme summer heat, respectively. We also find that ecosystem respiration decreased together with gross primary productivity, rather than accelerating with the temperature rise. Model results, corroborated by historical records of crop yields, suggest that such a reduction in Europe's primary productivity is unprecedented during the last century. An increase in future drought events could turn temperate ecosystems into carbon sources, contributing to positive carbon-climate feedbacks already anticipated in the tropics and at high latitudes.     

斑块开度对树木结实和交配格局的影响：以城市油松（Pinus tabulaeformis）种群为例

以城市种植油松斑块为例,探讨了斑块开度(作为林冠开度指标)对油松交配格局和结实的影响,发现斑块开度和油松自交率呈显著正相关,并与个体结实量具有一定的相关性.其原因可能是由于斑块开度增大导致自交种子败育率下降,或者是由于孤立木接收外源花粉相对较少.另外,本研究未发现斑块开度对花粉迁入有显著影响.     

Trophic cascades across ecosystems

Predation can be intense, creating strong direct and indirect effects throughout food webs. In addition, ecologists increasingly recognize that fluxes of organisms across ecosystem boundaries can have major consequences for community dynamics. Species with complex life histories often shift habitats during their life cycles and provide potent conduits coupling ecosystems. Thus, local interactions that affect predator abundance in one ecosystem (for example a larval habitat) may have reverberating effects in another (for example an adult habitat). Here we show that fish indirectly facilitate terrestrial plant reproduction through cascading trophic interactions across ecosystem boundaries. Fish reduce larval dragonfly abundances in ponds, leading to fewer adult dragonflies nearby. Adult dragonflies consume insect pollinators and alter their foraging behaviour. As a result, plants near ponds with fish receive more pollinator visits and are less pollen limited than plants near fish-free ponds. Our results confirm that strong species interactions can reverberate across ecosystems, and emphasize the importance of landscape-level processes in driving local species interactions.     

皇甫川流域不同生态环境类型对草地植物群落结构的影响

利用梯地比较的方法,从物种多样性,地上现存生物量,主要饲用植物生物量,群落光合生产结构,优势种,群落密度,生境等多个角度,研究在皇甫川流域三种不同生态环境类型下的草地群落的特征,结果表明,原生环境区的群落结构优于生态恢复治理区和水土流失区,各方面的指标大都好于后两,水土流失区群落状况较差,生态恢复治理区的群落状况居中。     

Rapid responses of British butterflies to opposing forces of climate and habitat change.

Habitat degradation and climate change are thought to be altering the distributions and abundances of animals and plants throughout the world, but their combined impacts have not been assessed for any species assemblage. Here we evaluated changes in the distribution sizes and abundances of 46 species of butterflies that approach their northern climatic range margins in Britain-where changes in climate and habitat are opposing forces. These insects might be expected to have responded positively to climate warming over the past 30 years, yet three-quarters of them declined: negative responses to habitat loss have outweighed positive responses to climate warming. Half of the species that were mobile and habitat generalists increased their distribution sites over this period (consistent with a climate explanation), whereas the other generalists and 89% of the habitat specialists declined in distribution size (consistent with habitat limitation). Changes in population abundances closely matched changes in distributions. The dual forces of habitat modification and climate change are likely to cause specialists to decline, leaving biological communities with reduced numbers of species and dominated by mobile and widespread habitat generalists.     

Food-web interactions govern the resistance of communities after non-random extinctions

Growing concern about how loss of biodiversity will affect ecosystems has stimulated numerous studies. Although most studies have assumed that species go extinct randomly, species often go extinct in order of their sensitivity to a stress that intensifies through time (such as climate change). Here we show that the consequences of random and ordered extinctions differ. Both depend on food-web interactions that create compensation; that is, the increase of some species when their competitors and/or predators decrease in density due to environmental stress. Compensation makes communities as a whole more resistant to stress by reducing changes in combined species densities. As extinctions progress, the potential for compensation is depleted, and communities become progressively less resistant. For ordered extinctions, however, this depletion is offset and communities retain their resistance, because the surviving species have greater average resistance to the stress. Despite extinctions being ordered, changes in the food web with successive extinctions make it difficult to predict which species will show compensation in the future. This unpredictability argues for 'whole-ecosystem' approaches to biodiversity conservation, as seemingly insignificant species may become important after other species go extinct.     

Ecosystem size determines food-chain length in lakes

Food-chain length is an important characteristic of ecological communities: it influences community structure, ecosystem functions and contaminant concentrations in top predators. Since Elton first noted that food-chain length was variable among natural systems, ecologists have considered many explanatory hypotheses, but few are supported by empirical evidence. Here we test three hypotheses that predict food-chain length to be determined by productivity alone (productivity hypothesis), ecosystem size alone (ecosystem-size hypothesis) or a combination of productivity and ecosystem size (productive-space hypothesis). The productivity and productive-space hypotheses propose that food-chain length should increase with increasing resource availability; however, the productivity hypothesis does not include ecosystem size as a determinant of resource availability. The ecosystem-size hypothesis is based on the relationship between ecosystem size and species diversity, habitat availability and habitat heterogeneity. We find that food-chain length increases with ecosystem size, but that the length of the food chain is not related to productivity. Our results support the hypothesis that ecosystem size, and not resource availability, determines food-chain length in these natural ecosystems.     

Ecosystem stability and compensatory effects in the Inner Mongolia grassland

Numerous studies have suggested that biodiversity reduces variability in ecosystem productivity through compensatory effects; that is, a species increases in its abundance in response to the reduction of another in a fluctuating environment. But this view has been challenged on several grounds. Because most studies have been based on artificially constructed grasslands with short duration, long-term studies of natural ecosystems are needed. On the basis of a 24-year study of the Inner Mongolia grassland, here we present three key findings. First, that January-July precipitation is the primary climatic factor causing fluctuations in community biomass production; second, that ecosystem stability (conversely related to variability in community biomass production) increases progressively along the hierarchy of organizational levels (that is, from species to functional group to whole community); and finally, that the community-level stability seems to arise from compensatory interactions among major components at both species and functional group levels. From a hierarchical perspective, our results corroborate some previous findings of compensatory effects. Undisturbed mature steppe ecosystems seem to culminate with high biodiversity, productivity and ecosystem stability concurrently. Because these relationships are correlational, further studies are necessary to verify the causation among these factors. Our study provides new insights for better management and restoration of the rapidly degrading Inner Mongolia grassland.     

南海中部浮游有孔虫通量的季节变化

南海中部１９９３－１９９５年连续两年的浅层和深层时间系列沉积捕获器试验,揭示游游有孔虫总通量以及Ｇlobigerinoides saculifer,Globigerinoides ruber,Neogloboquadrina dutertrei,Globigerinita glutinata等种的通量和相对百分数在东北季风和西南季风盛行期出现高值,而Globigerina bulloides,Pulleniatina obiquiloculata和Globorotalia menardii等种则仅在冬东北季风盛行期出现高值。此外,还发现浮游有孔虫属种的通量呈现明显的年际变化,研究表明这种季节和和年际变化主要受与东亚季风相关的表层初级生产力和海洋水文条件变化的控制。     

Spatial clumping of sexually receptive females induces space sharing among male voles

The spatial organization of individuals in populations (their spacing system) can be highly variable even among populations of the same species. As spacing systems have important consequences for ecological processes such as population regulation, competition and mating systems, there have been many attempts to explore factors that may cause this variation. For mammals, it has been argued that the spatial distribution of sexually receptive females is the most important factor determining the spacing system of males, whereas habitat characteristics are most important to females. This has been difficult to test experimentally as it requires manipulations of the spatial distribution of the opposite sex without changing other properties of the environment. Here, I present a novel experimental procedure that can achieve this and demonstrate that the spatial distribution of the opposite sex in a population of voles is indeed an important determinant of the spacing system of males, but not of females. However, the effects on males are different from those predicted by many theoretical studies.     

The role of microbial mats in the production of reduced gases on the early Earth.

The advent of oxygenic photosynthesis on Earth may have increased global biological productivity by a factor of 100-1,000 (ref. 1), profoundly affecting both geochemical and biological evolution. Much of this new productivity probably occurred in microbial mats, which incorporate a range of photosynthetic and anaerobic microorganisms in extremely close physical proximity. The potential contribution of these systems to global biogeochemical change would have depended on the nature of the interactions among these mat microorganisms. Here we report that in modern, cyanobacteria-dominated mats from hypersaline environments in Guerrero Negro, Mexico, photosynthetic microorganisms generate H2 and CO-gases that provide a basis for direct chemical interactions with neighbouring chemotrophic and heterotrophic microbes. We also observe an unexpected flux of CH4, which is probably related to H2-based alteration of the redox potential within the mats. These fluxes would have been most important during the nearly 2-billion-year period during which photosynthetic mats contributed substantially to biological productivity-and hence, to biogeochemistry-on Earth. In particular, the large fluxes of H2 that we observe could, with subsequent escape to space, represent a potentially important mechanism for oxidation of the primitive oceans and atmosphere.     

基于InVEST模型的黑龙江省生境质量空间格局及其影响因素

基于InVEST模型评估黑龙江省的生境质量,利用多尺度地理加权回归模型,探究影响生境质量的自然和人文要素作用空间尺度差异及其影响程度．结果表明:1)黑龙江省大小兴安岭、张广才岭等山地地区生境质量较高,松嫩平原、三江平原等地生境质量较低;2)多尺度地理加权回归模型识别出面积化肥施用量、农作物种植面积、高程、植被净初级生产力以及年均温度分别在62、44、43、43、43的局部尺度上影响生境质量,而年均降雨量、PM_2.5排放总量、人口数量、地区生产总值、土壤表层pH在近似全局尺度上影响生境质量;3)回归系数的显著性检验结果表明社会经济要素对生境质量的影响呈现显著负相关,高程和植被净初级生产力对生境质量的影响呈现显著正相关,而土壤表层pH呈现显著负相关．研究结果可为黑龙江省调整土地利用空间布局、保护区域生态环境提供科学依据．      

不同施肥梯度对甘南退化高寒草甸生产力和物种多样性的影响

研究了不同磷酸氢二氨施肥梯度对甘南退化高寒草甸生产力和物种多样性的短期影响．实验结果表明：生产力随施肥梯度迅速提高，但施肥对生产力的作用不是简单的线性正相关，存在一个阈值(30g／m^2)，超过这个值，施肥的作用就不显著了；物种丰富度随着施肥先略微增加，然后降低，Shannon多样性指数、均匀度指数均随施肥增加而下降，但在施肥梯度30g／m^2和60g／m^2之间基本不变；施肥形成的生产力梯度和物种丰富度的关系近似线性降低．为了恢复退化草甸的生产力，同时维持较高的多样性，施入磷酸氢二氨30g／m^2是经济而合理的．     

Ploughing the deep sea floor

Bottom trawling is a non-selective commercial fishing technique whereby heavy nets and gear are pulled along the sea floor. The direct impact of this technique on fish populations and benthic communities has received much attention, but trawling can also modify the physical properties of seafloor sediments, water–sediment chemical exchanges and sediment fluxes. Most of the studies addressing the physical disturbances of trawl gear on the seabed have been undertaken in coastal and shelf environments, however, where the capacity of trawling to modify the seafloor morphology coexists with high-energy natural processes driving sediment erosion, transport and deposition. Here we show that on upper continental slopes, the reworking of the deep sea floor by trawling gradually modifies the shape of the submarine landscape over large spatial scales. We found that trawling-induced sediment displacement and removal from fishing grounds causes the morphology of the deep sea floor to become smoother over time, reducing its original complexity as shown by high-resolution seafloor relief maps. Our results suggest that in recent decades, following the industrialization of fishing fleets, bottom trawling has become an important driver of deep seascape evolution. Given the global dimension of this type of fishery, we anticipate that the morphology of the upper continental slope in many parts of the world’s oceans could be altered by intensive bottom trawling, producing comparable effects on the deep sea floor to those generated by agricultural ploughing on land.