Abstract
Biodiversity is proposed to be important for ecosystem functions. Most biodiversity – ecosystem function studies, however, consider only one response variable at a time, and even when multiple variables are examined they are analyzed separately. This means that a very important aspect of biodiversity is lost on the way – the possibility for different species to perform and carry out different functions at any one time. The project aims at testing the significance of biodiversity in sustaining ecosystem functioning when multiple functions are considered. This will be achieved by a combination of theory development, meta-analysis of available data, and experimental tests of theoretical predictions. The theoretical framework will be used to quantify the sensitivity of total ecosystem functioning when species are lost, and how this depends on the complementarity of ecosystem functions across species. Meta-analyses of available data (within an international network of researchers) will be used to explore the significance of a multifunction perspective. Finally, we will test model predictions in a series of laboratory and field experiments where different extinction scenarios are generated. By shifting the focus to the diversity of functions maintained by a richness of species, we can start to uncover the full importance of biodiversity for the functioning of ecosystems. Our results are thus highly important for conservation and management of biota and ecosystem services.
Sweden