Biodiversity and Temporal Stability of Naturally Assembled Ecosystems Across Spatial Scales in a Changing World

Abstract

Both theory and experiments have demonstrated the positive effect of biodiversity on the temporal stability of aggregated ecosystem properties. Understanding whether biodiversity safeguards ecosystem functioning against environmental fluctuations in natural ecosystems at larger spatial scales has thus become a major challenge of modern ecology. Effects of fertilization were most often assessed, while effects of grazing, warming, and changes in precipitation or other global change drivers were less frequently assessed. High dominance in natural ecosystems can lead to a stronger contribution of the dominant species to the stability of aggregate properties relative to rare species, thereby diminishing the role of biodiversity per se. Existing biodiversity-stability studies are highly biased towards terrestrial, temperate systems and towards primary producers. In summary, in line with theory and experimental findings, the biodiversity of multiple trophic levels is typically associated with a high stability in biomass production.