Abstract

Plant diversity and niche complementarity had progressively stronger effects on ecosystem functioning during a 7-year experiment, with 16-species plots attaining 2.7 times greater biomass than monocultures. Diversity effects were neither transients nor explained solely by a few productive or unviable species. Rather, many higher-diversity plots outperformed the best monoculture. These results help resolve debate over biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, show effects at higher than expected diversity levels, and demonstrate, for these ecosystems, that even the best-chosen monocultures cannot achieve greater productivity or carbon stores than higher-diversity sites.

Keywords

MonocultureBiodiversityEcosystemProductivityEcologyEcosystem diversityBiomass (ecology)GrasslandComplementarity (molecular biology)Diversity (politics)Species diversityPolycultureGrassland ecosystemBiologyEconomicsFisheryFish <Actinopterygii>Aquaculture

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Publication Info

Year
2001
Type
article
Volume
294
Issue
5543
Pages
843-845
Citations
2308
Access
Closed

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David Tilman, Peter B. Reich, Johannes M. H. Knops et al. (2001). Diversity and Productivity in a Long-Term Grassland Experiment. Science , 294 (5543) , 843-845. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1060391

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DOI
10.1126/science.1060391