Impacts of species richness on productivity in a large-scale subtropical forest experiment.
Yuanyuan HuangYuxin ChenNadia Castro-IzaguirreMartin BaruffolMatteo BrezziAnne LangYing LiWerner HärdtleGoddert von OheimbXue-Fei YangXiaojuan LiuKequan PeiSabine BothBo YangDavid EichenbergThorsten AssmannJuergen BauhusThorsten BehrensFrançois BuscotXiao-Yong ChenDouglas ChestersBing-Yang DingWalter DurkaAlexandra ErfmeierJingyun FangMarkus FischerLiang-Dong GuoDali GuoJessica L M GutknechtJin-Sheng HeChun-Ling HeAndy HectorLydia HönigRen-Yong HuAlexandra-Maria KleinPeter KühnYu LiangShan LiStefan G MichalskiMichael Scherer-LorenzenKarsten SchmidtThomas ScholtenAndreas SchuldtXuezheng ShiMan-Zhi TanZhiyao TangStefan TrogischZhengwen WangErik WelkChristian WirthTesfaye WubetWenhua XiangMingjian YuXiao-Dong YuJiayong ZhangShouren ZhangNaili ZhangHong-Zhang ZhouChao-Dong ZhuLi ZhuHelge BruelheideKeping MaPascal Alex NiklausBernhard SchmidPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2019)
Biodiversity experiments have shown that species loss reduces ecosystem functioning in grassland. To test whether this result can be extrapolated to forests, the main contributors to terrestrial primary productivity, requires large-scale experiments. We manipulated tree species richness by planting more than 150,000 trees in plots with 1 to 16 species. Simulating multiple extinction scenarios, we found that richness strongly increased stand-level productivity. After 8 years, 16-species mixtures had accumulated over twice the amount of carbon found in average monocultures and similar amounts as those of two commercial monocultures. Species richness effects were strongly associated with functional and phylogenetic diversity. A shrub addition treatment reduced tree productivity, but this reduction was smaller at high shrub species richness. Our results encourage multispecies afforestation strategies to restore biodiversity and mitigate climate change.
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