Grassland species loss resulting from reduced niche dimension

Intact ecosystems contain large numbers of competing but coexisting species. Although numerous alternative theories have provided potential explanations for this high biodiversity, there have been few field experiments testing between these theories. In particular, theory predicts that higher diversity of coexisting competitors could result from greater niche dimensionality, for example larger numbers of limiting resources or factors. Alternatively, diversity could be independent of niche dimensionality because large numbers of species can coexist when limited by just one or two factors if species have appropriate trade-offs. Here we show that plant coexistence and diversity result from the 'niche dimensionality' of a habitat. Plant species numbers decreased with increasing numbers of added limiting soil resources (soil moisture, nitrogen, phosphorus and base cations), which is consistent with theoretical predictions that an increased supply of multiple limiting resources can reduce niche dimension. An observational field study gave similar results. The niche dimension hypothesis also explained diversity changes in the classic Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted. Our results provide an alternative mechanistic explanation for the effects of nutrient eutrophication on the diversity of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.     

Local dispersal promotes biodiversity in a real-life game of rock-paper-scissors

One of the central aims of ecology is to identify mechanisms that maintain biodiversity. Numerous theoretical models have shown that competing species can coexist if ecological processes such as dispersal, movement, and interaction occur over small spatial scales. In particular, this may be the case for non-transitive communities, that is, those without strict competitive hierarchies. The classic non-transitive system involves a community of three competing species satisfying a relationship similar to the children's game rock-paper-scissors, where rock crushes scissors, scissors cuts paper, and paper covers rock. Such relationships have been demonstrated in several natural systems. Some models predict that local interaction and dispersal are sufficient to ensure coexistence of all three species in such a community, whereas diversity is lost when ecological processes occur over larger scales. Here, we test these predictions empirically using a non-transitive model community containing three populations of Escherichia coli. We find that diversity is rapidly lost in our experimental community when dispersal and interaction occur over relatively large spatial scales, whereas all populations coexist when ecological processes are localized.     

The contribution of species richness and composition to bacterial services

Bacterial communities provide important services. They break down pollutants, municipal waste and ingested food, and they are the primary means by which organic matter is recycled to plants and other autotrophs. However, the processes that determine the rate at which these services are supplied are only starting to be identified. Biodiversity influences the way in which ecosystems function, but the form of the relationship between bacterial biodiversity and functioning remains poorly understood. Here we describe a manipulative experiment that measured how biodiversity affects the functioning of communities containing up to 72 bacterial species constructed from a collection of naturally occurring culturable bacteria. The experimental design allowed us to manipulate large numbers of bacterial species selected at random from those that were culturable. We demonstrate that there is a decelerating relationship between community respiration and increasing bacterial diversity. We also show that both synergistic interactions among bacterial species and the composition of the bacterial community are important in determining the level of ecosystem functioning.     

Mobility promotes and jeopardizes biodiversity in rock-paper-scissors games

Biodiversity is essential to the viability of ecological systems. Species diversity in ecosystems is promoted by cyclic, non-hierarchical interactions among competing populations. Central features of such non-transitive relations are represented by the 'rock-paper-scissors' game, in which rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper wraps rock. In combination with spatial dispersal of static populations, this type of competition results in the stable coexistence of all species and the long-term maintenance of biodiversity. However, population mobility is a central feature of real ecosystems: animals migrate, bacteria run and tumble. Here, we observe a critical influence of mobility on species diversity. When mobility exceeds a certain value, biodiversity is jeopardized and lost. In contrast, below this critical threshold all subpopulations coexist and an entanglement of travelling spiral waves forms in the course of time. We establish that this phenomenon is robust; it does not depend on the details of cyclic competition or spatial environment. These findings have important implications for maintenance and temporal development of ecological systems and are relevant for the formation and propagation of patterns in microbial populations or excitable media.     

Adaptive divergence in pigment composition promotes phytoplankton biodiversity

The dazzling diversity of the phytoplankton has puzzled biologists for decades. The puzzle has been enlarged rather than solved by the progressive discovery of new phototrophic microorganisms in the oceans, including picocyanobacteria, pico-eukaryotes, and bacteriochlorophyll-based and rhodopsin-based phototrophic bacteria. Physiological and genomic studies suggest that natural selection promotes niche differentiation among these phototrophic microorganisms, particularly with respect to their photosynthetic characteristics. We have analysed competition for light between two closely related picocyanobacteria of the Synechococcus group that we isolated from the Baltic Sea. One of these two has a red colour because it contains the pigment phycoerythrin, whereas the other is blue-green because it contains high contents of the pigment phycocyanin. Here we report theory and competition experiments that reveal stable coexistence of the two picocyanobacteria, owing to partitioning of the light spectrum. Further competition experiments with a third marine cyanobacterium, capable of adapting its pigment composition, show that this species persists by investing in the pigment that absorbs the colour not used by its competitors. These results demonstrate the adaptive significance of divergence in pigment composition of phototrophic microorganisms, which allows an efficient utilization of light energy and favours species coexistence.     

Low host specificity of herbivorous insects in a tropical forest

Two decades of research have not established whether tropical insect herbivores are dominated by specialists or generalists. This impedes our understanding of species coexistence in diverse rainforest communities. Host specificity and species richness of tropical insects are also key parameters in mapping global patterns of biodiversity. Here we analyse data for over 900 herbivorous species feeding on 51 plant species in New Guinea and show that most herbivorous species feed on several closely related plant species. Because species-rich genera are dominant in tropical floras, monophagous herbivores are probably rare in tropical forests. Furthermore, even between phylogenetically distant hosts, herbivore communities typically shared a third of their species. These results do not support the classical view that the coexistence of herbivorous species in the tropics is a consequence of finely divided plant resources; non-equilibrium models of tropical diversity should instead be considered. Low host specificity of tropical herbivores reduces global estimates of arthropod diversity from 31 million (ref. 1) to 4 6 million species. This finding agrees with estimates based on taxonomic collections, reconciling an order of magnitude discrepancy between extrapolations of global diversity based on ecological samples of tropical communities with those based on sampling regional faunas.     

祁连山自然保护区生物多样性保护与森林有害生物可持续治理

简述了祁连山自然保护区森林生物多样性特征,森林病虫鼠害发生与生物多样性的关系,说明导致森林病虫鼠害大发生的森林生物多样性原因在于:森林树种、森林类型及其分布状况比较单纯;林分结构多样性简单;灌草植被种类虽多,超群种类较少;人为干扰破坏严重,生物多样性趋于减少;天敌种群数量低,不能有效控制森林有害生物种群上升.提出了生物多样性保护与森林有害生物可持续治理的策略与措施.     

Genomic island variability facilitates Prochlorococcus-virus coexistence

Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria are extremely abundant in the oceans, as are the viruses that infect them. How hosts and viruses coexist in nature remains unclear, although the presence of both susceptible and resistant cells may allow this coexistence. Combined whole-genome sequencing and PCR screening technology now enables us to investigate the effect of resistance on genome evolution and the genomic mechanisms behind the long-term coexistence of Prochlorococcus and their viruses. Here we present a genome analysis of 77 substrains selected for resistance to ten viruses, revealing mutations primarily in non-conserved, horizontally transferred genes that localize to a single hypervariable genomic island. Mutations affected viral attachment to the cell surface and imposed a fitness cost to the host, manifested by significantly lower growth rates or a previously unknown mechanism of more rapid infection by other viruses. The mutant genes are generally uncommon in nature yet some carry polymorphisms matching those found experimentally. These data are empirical evidence indicating that viral-attachment genes are preferentially located in genomic islands and that viruses are a selective pressure enhancing the diversity of both island genes and island gene content. This diversity emerges as a genomic mechanism that reduces the effective host population size for infection by a given virus, thus facilitating long-term coexistence between viruses and their hosts in nature.     

Sexual selection enables long-term coexistence despite ecological equivalence

Empirical data indicate that sexual preferences are critical for maintaining species boundaries, yet theoretical work has suggested that, on their own, they can have only a minimal role in maintaining biodiversity. This is because long-term coexistence within overlapping ranges is thought to be unlikely in the absence of ecological differentiation. Here we challenge this widely held view by generalizing a standard model of sexual selection to include two ubiquitous features of populations with sexual selection: spatial variation in local carrying capacity, and mate-search costs in females. We show that, when these two features are combined, sexual preferences can single-handedly maintain coexistence, even when spatial variation in local carrying capacity is so slight that it might go unnoticed empirically. This theoretical study demonstrates that sexual selection alone can promote the long-term coexistence of ecologically equivalent species with overlapping ranges, and it thus provides a novel explanation for the maintenance of species diversity.     

一类扩展的协作竞争模型及其定性分析

 将已有文献中一类特殊的两种群协作竞争模型扩展到一般的多种群协作竞争模型。证明在一般的两种群协作竞争模型中，竞争种群在低密度时的相互协作能促进双方的共生，并能提高其环境容纳量，从而证明并拓展了已有结论；同时，完整分析一类具体的两种群协作竞争模型，证明该系统不存在周期解，并从定性与定量两方面揭示了协作关系在促进竞争者共生及环境容纳量提升方面的内在机理，深化了已有结论。     

GAP分析与区域生物多样性保护

人为活动对区域生境干扰导致濒危物种数量不断增加,是目前全世界范围内生物多样性保护工作面临的严峻挑战。为扭转传统保护思路难以适应现代生物多样性保护需求这一被动现状,人们开始采用一种基于景观和区域尺度的整体保护策略,GAP分析就是实现这种保护策略的主要支撑技术。该技术的核心是通过区域性的土地覆盖、物种分布和土地权属叠图综合分析,鉴别具有重要保护价值的“保护空白”,进而为合理的区域性生物多样性保护设计和土地利用规划,提供科学的决策依据。以美国的GAP分析计划为例,详细介绍GAP分析的基本技术过程,相关理论和实践研究进展及相关技术应用的主要限制因素,并针对我国生物多样性保护工作的现状和存在的关键问题,阐述了我国开展类似理论和应用研究的必要性、重点研究内容及其理论和实践意义。     

Diversity-dependent production can decrease the stability of ecosystem functioning

There is concern that species loss may adversely affect ecosystem functioning and stability. But although there is evidence that biodiversity loss can lead to reductions in biomass production, there is no direct evidence that biodiversity loss affects ecosystem resistance (ability to withstand perturbation) or resilience (recovery from perturbation). Yet theory, laboratory experiments and indirect experimental evidence strongly suggest that diversity and stability are related. Here we report results from a field experiment with factorially crossed perturbation and diversity manipulations. We simulated drought perturbation on constructed grassland ecosystems containing 1, 2, 4, 8 or 32 plant species. Under unperturbed conditions, the species-poor systems achieved lower biomass production than the species-rich systems. However, the species-poor systems were more resistant to perturbation than the species-rich systems. The species-poor systems also showed a larger initial resilience following perturbation, although the original relationship between diversity and productivity was fully restored after 1year. Our results confirm that biodiversity increases biomass production, but they also point to the fact that such diversity--production associations may lead to an inverse relationship between biodiversity and the stability of ecosystem functioning.     

隔河岩水电站废弃地植被的初始生态恢复

以隔河岩水电废弃地生态治理点植被的野外调查资料为基础，报道了该废弃地上植物群落的组成、结构及物种多样性特点，评价了隔河岩水电废弃地植被的初始生态恢复状况，并对当地种和外来种作为种植苗木对生态恢复进程的作用进行了探讨．结果显示，除两种种植的苗木外，共有75种当地的植物扩散定居在被治理的废弃上，初步形成了具一定组成与结构的植物群落，明显地改变了废弃地的植被与生态环境状况．表明苗木种植能促进灌木种类的扩散和定居及植被的恢复，是一种及时有效的生态恢复技术，但不同的苗木种类对废弃地植被初始生态恢复的效果不一样．通过比较塔柏和湿地松两种人工林的生物多样性与群落结构，认为塔柏的初始生态恢复效果比湿地松好．     

The diversity-stability debate

There exists little doubt that the Earth's biodiversity is declining. The Nature Conservancy, for example, has documented that one-third of the plant and animal species in the United States are now at risk of extinction. The problem is a monumental one, and forces us to consider in depth how we expect ecosystems, which ultimately are our life-support systems, to respond to reductions in diversity. This issue--commonly referred to as the diversity-stability debate--is the subject of this review, which synthesizes historical ideas with recent advances. Both theory and empirical evidence agree that we should expect declines in diversity to accelerate the simplification of ecological communities.     

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.     

生物多样性熵值测度指标的应用与分析

以一般生物多样性指标为基础．对熵值测度指标进行了研究,用熵值及其他多样性指标分析评价了新疆克拉玛依荒漠植被的生物多样性。结果表明,熵值测度指标与一般生物多样性指标在机理上有对应性,不仅可作为物种多样性、生态优势度、物种丰富度的优良评价指标,而且可以说明系统的物种对系统的贡献大小及其演化方向。     

General patterns of taxonomic and biomass partitioning in extant and fossil plant communities

A central goal of evolutionary ecology is to identify the general features maintaining the diversity of species assemblages. Understanding the taxonomic and ecological characteristics of ecological communities provides a means to develop and test theories about the processes that regulate species coexistence and diversity. Here, using data from woody plant communities from different biogeographic regions, continents and geologic time periods, we show that the number of higher taxa is a general power-function of species richness that is significantly different from randomized assemblages. In general, we find that local communities are characterized by fewer higher taxa than would be expected by chance. The degree of taxonomic diversity is influenced by modes of dispersal and potential biotic interactions. Further, changes in local diversity are accompanied by regular changes in the partitioning of community biomass between taxa that are also described by a power function. Our results indicate that local and regional processes have consistently regulated community diversity and biomass partitioning for millions of years.     

Stability of forest biodiversity

Two hypotheses to explain potentially high forest biodiversity have different implications for the number and kinds of species that can coexist and the potential loss of biodiversity in the absence of speciation. The first hypothesis involves stabilizing mechanisms, which include tradeoffs between species in terms of their capacities to disperse to sites where competition is weak, to exploit abundant resources effectively and to compete for scarce resources. Stabilization results because competitors thrive at different times and places. An alternative, 'neutral model' suggests that stabilizing mechanisms may be superfluous. This explanation emphasizes 'equalizing' mechanisms, because competitive exclusion of similar species is slow. Lack of ecologically relevant differences means that abundances experience random 'neutral drift', with slow extinction. The relative importance of these two mechanisms is unknown, because assumptions and predictions involve broad temporal and spatial scales. Here we demonstrate that predictions of neutral drift are testable using palaeodata. The results demonstrate strong stabilizing forces. By contrast with the neutral prediction of increasing variance among sites over time, we show that variances in post-Glacial tree abundances among sites stabilize rapidly, and abundances remain coherent over broad geographical scales.     

两种山雀巢地选择的比较研究

对大山雀（Parusmajor）和沼泽山雀（P.palustris）巢地选择中17个生态因子作了比较研究,通过逐步判别分析得知：两种山雀在9个环境因子中都以平均树高（y2）、中心上层植物盖度（y4）和树种多样性（y5）三个生态因子判别力最强．为主要环境因子；两种山崔在8个洞因子中都以洞口短径（x2）、洞口内径（x5）和洞底短径（x8）三个生态因子判别力最强，为主要洞因子.在巢地选择中洞因子比环境因子相对重要（x2＝26.22＞13．99）两种山雀巢地选择中的区别是：3个主要环境因子中，大山雀与沼泽山雀相比较差异极显著（fmd＝6.02＞f0.01）；3个洞因子中沼泽山雀与大山雀相比较差异极显著（fmd＝6.02＞f0.01）．     

桂西南岩溶植被演替过程中的植物多样性

2001年10月至2002年8月,以“空间代替时间”方法对(?)岗自然保护区及其周边区域的岩溶植被进行调查,采用物种丰富度(S)、Shannon-Wiener指数(H)、Simpson指数(D)、Margalef’s指数(E)分别从乔木层、灌木层、草本层以及整个群落分析桂西南岩溶植被各演替阶段的物种多样性特征。结果表明:随着演替进行、草本层由种类较少的阳性草种发展到种类丰富的耐荫草种,物种多样性随着演替的进行而增加,在灌草丛阶段存在一个较小的峰值。灌木层物种多样性在藤刺灌丛阶段达到最大,随后到先锋阶段明显下降,至亚顶极、顶极阶段灌木层的物种多样性又略有回升,但不及藤刺灌丛阶段,亚顶极阶段与顶极阶段的灌木层物种多样性差异不大。乔木层由于亚顶极阶段既存活有阳性树种,又存活有阴性树种,物种多样性基本上是先锋群落阶段〈亚顶极群落阶段、亚顶极群落阶段〉顶极群落阶段。桂西南岩溶植物群落物种多样性并非随着演替发展而增大,而是在亚顶极阶段达到最大值;不同群落演替阶段各层次物种多样性表现为灌木层〉草本层、灌小层〉乔木层的规律。