Abstract
Although the central focus of ecology has long been the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, this relationship has rarely been explored in species-poor communities such as salt marshes, which have the potential to shed new light on this debate. We conducted two microcosm experiments, each testing a different environmental variable (salinity or disturbance) and its interaction with the plant community’s richness and species composition, using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary. The relationships between diversity and productivity were weak and non-significant, possibly due to intense competition among the sedges. Species composition played a more important role in determining productivity. Moreover, biodiversity effects were found to be environment-dependent. Salinity stress increased the selection effect, while disturbance tended to increase both selection and complementarity effects. Interestingly, the correlation between biodiversity and stability was non-linear and presented different patterns in the salinity and disturbance experiments. Our results show that species-poor systems with low functional group diversity may exhibit weak relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning during the establishment phase under controlled experimental conditions. In this ecosystem, species richness rarely impacted biomass, which was instead primarily driven by species composition and environmental conditions.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Relationships between diversity and productivity were weak and non-significant in the sedge microcosms.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary”
e1“The relationships between diversity and productivity were weak and non-significant”
Claim · model-written summary
Species composition played a more important role than richness in determining productivity of the sedge communities.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary”
e1“Species composition played a more important role in determining productivity”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity stress increased the selection effect in the sedge communities.
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary”
e1“Salinity stress increased the selection effect”
Claim · model-written summary
Disturbance tended to increase both the selection and complementarity effects in the sedge communities.
- Taxon
- sedge speciese0
- Treatment
- disturbancee1
- Outcome
- selection and complementarity effectse1
- Direction
- increasee1
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary”
e1“disturbance tended to increase both selection and complementarity effects”
Claim · model-written summary
The correlation between biodiversity and stability was non-linear and showed different patterns in the salinity and disturbance experiments.
- Taxon
- sedge speciese0
- Treatment
- salinity and disturbance experimentse1
- Outcome
- correlation between biodiversity and stabilitye1
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary”
e1“the correlation between biodiversity and stability was non-linear and presented different patterns in the salinity and disturbance experiments”
Claim · model-written summary
Species richness rarely impacted biomass in the sedge communities.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary”
e1“species richness rarely impacted biomass”