Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Mar 22;274(1611):871-6.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2006.0351.

From selection to complementarity: shifts in the causes of biodiversity-productivity relationships in a long-term biodiversity experiment

Joseph Fargione  1 , David Tilman, Ray Dybzinski, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Chris Clark, W Stanley Harpole, Johannes M H Knops, Peter B Reich, Michel Loreau
Affiliations

From selection to complementarity: shifts in the causes of biodiversity-productivity relationships in a long-term biodiversity experiment

Joseph Fargione et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

In a 10-year (1996-2005) biodiversity experiment, the mechanisms underlying the increasingly positive effect of biodiversity on plant biomass production shifted from sampling to complementarity over time. The effect of diversity on plant biomass was associated primarily with the accumulation of higher total plant nitrogen pools (N g m-2) and secondarily with more efficient N use at higher diversity. The accumulation of N in living plant biomass was significantly increased by the presence of legumes, C4 grasses, and their combined presence. Thus, these results provide clear evidence for the increasing effects of complementarity through time and suggest a mechanism whereby diversity increases complementarity through the increased input and retention of N, a commonly limiting nutrient.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Temporal trends in the slopes of the net, selection and complementarity effects versus species number in 1996–2005. Error bars indicate 1 s.e. Only four of the slopes are not significantly different from zero: complementarity in 1996 and 1997 and selection in 1998 and 2004.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aarssen L.W. High productivity in grassland ecosystems: effected by species diversity or productive species? Oikos. 1997;80:182–183.
    1. Craine J.M, Tilman D, Wedin D, Reich P, Tjoelker M, Knops J. Functional traits, productivity and effects on nitrogen cycling of 33 grassland species. Funct. Ecol. 2002;16:563–574. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2435.2002.00660.x - DOI
    1. Diaz S, Cabido M. Vive la difference: plant functional diversity matters to ecosystem functioning. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2001;16:646–655. doi:10.1016/S0169-5347(01)02283-2 - DOI
    1. Geisser S, Greenhouse S.W. An extension of Box's results on the use of the F distribution in multivariate analysis. Ann. Math. Stat. 1958;29:885–891.
    1. Hector A. Biodiversity and the functioning of grassland ecosystems: multi-site comparisons. In: Kinzig A.P, Pacala S, Tillman D, editors. The functional consequences of biodiversity. vol. 33. Princeton University Press; Princeton, NJ: 2002. pp. 71–95.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources