Journal Article10.1038/367363A0
Biodiversity and stability in grasslands
David Tilman,John A. Downing +1 more
2.1K
TL;DR: This article showed that primary productivity in more diverse plant communities is more resistant to, and recovers more fully from, a major drought and that each additional species lost from our grasslands had a progressively greater impact on drought resistance.
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Abstract: One of the ecological tenets justifying conservation of biodiversity is that diversity begets stability. Impacts of biodiversity on population dynamics and ecosystem functioning have long been debated1–7, however, with many theoretical explorations2–6,8–11 but few field studies12–15. Here we describe a long-term study of grasslands16,17 which shows that primary productivity in more diverse plant communities is more resistant to, and recovers more fully from, a major drought. The curvilinear relationship we observe suggests that each additional species lost from our grasslands had a progressively greater impact on drought resistance. Our results support the diversity—stability hypothesis5,6,18,19, but not the alternative hypothesis that most species are functionally redundant19–21. This study implies that the preservation of biodiversity is essential for the maintenance of stable productivity in ecosystems.
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Citations
Species Traits, Species Richness and the Resilience of Wetlands after Disturbance
Katharina A. M. Engelhardt,John A. Kadlec +1 more
- 01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: It is shown that species losses and subsequent changes in diversity can decrease the resilience (recovery ability) of ecosystems after a disturbance and can alter ecosystem functioning (e.g., productivity).
50
Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Resilience in Turbulent Environments
Diego Jacob Kurtz,Gregório Varvakis +1 more
- 01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the role and importance of dynamic capabilities for SMEs, considering how these capabilities can assist adaptation and resilience to maintain competitiveness in turbulent environments, and propose an integration between the concepts and establish the initial steps to develop dynamic capabilities and organizational resilience.
50
Nutrient uptake and lipid yield in diverse microalgal communities grown in wastewater
TL;DR: It was observed that the mean growth and nutrient depletion increased with increasing number of species in the community, and the highest lipid content was obtained from some of the multispecies communities, which indicates transgressive overyielding in terms of lipid production.
50
Individual variability in trophic position and diet of a marine omnivore is linked to kelp bed habitat
Lucy Jack,Stephen R. Wing +1 more
TL;DR: A novel approach to quantifying the coincidence of landscape- scale nutritional gradients with niche breadth in terms of variability in trophic level and use of basal organic matter sources is demonstrated.
Implications of species loss in freshwater fish assemblages
TL;DR: Magurran et al. as discussed by the authors measured the ecological diversity of pristine and perturbed freshwater assemblages in Trinidad, West Indies, and Oklahoma, USA and suggested that species provenance may be important in testsof ecological function.
49
References
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Applied Regression Analysis
Norman R. Draper,Harry Smith +1 more
- 01 Jan 1966
TL;DR: In this article, the Straight Line Case is used to fit a straight line by least squares, and the Durbin-Watson Test is used for checking the straight line fit.
19K
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Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems
Robert M. May,N. MacDonald +1 more
- 21 Aug 1973
TL;DR: Preface vii Preface to the Second Edition Biology Edition 1.
The complexity and stability of ecosystems
TL;DR: Early studies suggested that simple ecosystems were less stable than complex ones, but later studies came to the opposite conclusion as discussed by the authors. Confusion arose because of the many different meanings of "complexity" and "stability".
2.9K