Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands

Fernando T. Maestre; Jose L. Quero; Nicholas J. Gotelli; Adrian Escudero; Victoria Ochoa; Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo; Miguel Garcia-Gomez; Matthew A. Bowker; Santiago Soliveres; Cristina Escolar; Pablo Garcia-Palacios; Miguel Berdugo; Enrique Valencia; Beatriz Gozalo; Antonio Gallardo; Lorgio Aguilera; Tulio Arredondo; Julio Blones; Bertrand Boeken; Donaldo Bran; Abel A. Conceicao; Omar Cabrera; Mohamed Chaieb; Mchich Derak; David J. Eldridge; Carlos I. Espinosa; Adriana Florentino; Juan Gaitan; M. Gabriel Gatica; Wahida Ghiloufi; Susana Gomez-Gonzalez; Julio R. Gutie; Rosa M. Hernandez; Xuewen Huang; Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald; Mohammad Jankju; Maria Miriti; Jorge Monerris; Rebecca L. Mau; Ernesto Morici; Kamal Naseri; Abelardo Ospina; Vicente Polo; Anibal Prina; Eduardo Pucheta; David A. Ramirez-Collantes; Roberto Romao; Matthew Tighe; Cristian Torres-Diaz; James Val; Jose P. Veiga; Deli Wang; Eli Zaady

doi:10.1126/science.1215442

Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands

Science

By: Fernando T. Maestre, Jose L. Quero, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Adrian Escudero, Victoria Ochoa, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Miguel Garcia-Gomez, Matthew A. Bowker, Santiago Soliveres, Cristina Escolar, Pablo Garcia-Palacios, Miguel Berdugo, Enrique Valencia, Beatriz Gozalo, Antonio Gallardo, Lorgio Aguilera, Tulio Arredondo, Julio Blones, Bertrand Boeken, Donaldo Bran, Abel A. Conceicao, Omar Cabrera, Mohamed Chaieb, Mchich Derak, David J. Eldridge, Carlos I. Espinosa, Adriana Florentino, Juan Gaitan, M. Gabriel Gatica, Wahida Ghiloufi, Susana Gomez-Gonzalez, Julio R. Gutie, Rosa M. Hernandez, Xuewen Huang, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Mohammad Jankju, Maria Miriti, Jorge Monerris, Rebecca L. Mau, Ernesto Morici, Kamal Naseri, Abelardo Ospina, Vicente Polo, Anibal Prina, Eduardo Pucheta, David A. Ramirez-Collantes, Roberto Romao, Matthew Tighe, Cristian Torres-Diaz, James Val, Jose P. Veiga, Deli Wang, and Eli Zaady

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215442

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Abstract

Experiments suggest that biodiversity enhances the ability of ecosystems to maintain multiple functions, such as carbon storage, productivity, and the buildup of nutrient pools (multifunctionality). However, the relationship between biodiversity and multifunctionality has never been assessed globally in natural ecosystems. We report here on a global empirical study relating plant species richness and abiotic factors to multifunctionality in drylands, which collectively cover 41% of Earth's land surface and support over 38% of the human population. Multifunctionality was positively and significantly related to species richness. The best-fitting models accounted for over 55% of the variation in multifunctionality and always included species richness as a predictor variable. Our results suggest that the preservation of plant biodiversity is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands.

Suggested Citation

Maestre, F.T., Quero, J.L., Gotelli, N., Escudero, A., Ochoa, V., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., Garcia-Gomez, M., Bowker, M.A., Soliveres, S., Escolar, C., Garcia-Palacios, P., Berdugo, M., Valencia, E., Gozalo, B., Gallardo, A., Aguilera, L., Arredondo, T., Blones, J., Boeken, B., Bran, D., Conceicao, A.A., Cabrera, O., Chaieb, M., Derak, M., Eldridge, D., Espinosa, C.I., Florentino, A., Gaitan, J., Gatica, M.G., Ghiloufi, W., Gomez-Gonzalez, S., Gutie, J.R., Hernandez, R., Huang, X., Huber-Sannwald, E., Jankju, M., Miriti, M., Monerris, J., Mau, R.L., Morici, E., Naseri, K., Ospina, A., Polo, V., Prina, A., Pucheta, E., Ramirez-Collantes, D.A., Romao, R., Tighe, M., Torres-Diaz, C., Val, J., Veiga, J.P., Wang, D., and Zaady, E., 2012, Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands: Science, v. 335, no. 6065, p. 214-218, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215442.

Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands
Series title	Science
DOI	10.1126/science.1215442
Volume	335
Issue	6065
Year Published	2012
Language	English
Publisher	AAAS
Publisher location	Washington, D.C.
Contributing office(s)	Southwest Biological Science Center
Description	5 p.
Larger Work Type	Article
Larger Work Subtype	Journal Article
Larger Work Title	Science
First page	214
Last page	218
Other Geospatial	Earth