Comment on “Plant Species Richness and
Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands”
Tommaso
Jucker & David A. Coomes
Maestre et
al. (Reports, 13 January 2012, p. 214) reported a general, but weak, positive
relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in global
drylands. We show that the strength of this relationship changes consistently
along multiple environmental gradients, becoming strongly positive in stressed
habitats. This suggests that biodiversity loss may have especially strong
consequences in harsh environments.
Response to Comment on “Plant Species Richness
and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands”
Fernando T. Maestre, Santiago Soliveres, Nicholas J.
Gotelli, José L. Quero & Miguel Berdugo
Jucker and
Coomes claim that the relationship between plant species richness (biodiversity)
and ecosystem multifunctionality (B-EMf) reported in our study changes along
environmental gradients. We point out flaws in their analytical approach and
then reanalyze our data to further demonstrate that the B-EMf relationship does
not substantially change along environmental gradients.
Jucker
& Coomes ask a very interesting question: does the B-EMf relationship change
along environmental gradients? They create a new stress index and evaluate how
plant species richness affect ecosystem multifunctionality depending on the
abiotic stress of the study sites (low, medium and high). They found that this
relationship varies depending on the degree of stress, questioning the global
relationship we found in our study. In our response we re-analyze the data from
Jucker & Coomes, and found important flaws in their calculations of
the stress index, which invalidate their
conclusions. We also re-analyze our own data, and found that the inclusion of
abiotic stress did not change the findings and conclusions of our original article:
there is a significant positive B-EMf relationship in global drylands and that
species richness is an important positive predictor of ecosystem
multifunctionality.
Our article
has received attention from the media (check here for a selection of news about it) and our
colleagues since its publication. In addition to the commentary by Jucker &
Coomes, our article has received three F1000 evaluations, and has been the subjects of
several blog posts (Ted Hart and Bob O´Hara blogs), which led to lively discussions. It also has been cited by
reviews on biodiversity recently published in Nature (Cardinale
et al. 2012) and Science (Naeem et al. 2012).We
certainly welcome this attention and discussion on our work, which we hope will
stimulate further studies on the mechanistic basis of the relationships found,
and on how we can use, manage and restore biodiversity to improve the structure
and functioning in dryland ecosystems. This is an urgent task to fight against
desertification and global environmental change, and to improve the livelihood
of the millions of people that live in the drylands of the world.
If you are
interested on this topic please check also some recent papers from the Maestre
lab carried out with biological soil crusts, which explore how different biotic
attributes, including species richness, composition and spatial pattern, affect
ecosystem functioning:
Maestre et
al. (2012, Journal of Ecology), highlighted in the blog of the Journal
Bowker et al. (2011, Functional Ecology)
Bowker et al. (2011, Functional Ecology)
Gotelli et al. (2011, Methods in Ecology and Evolution), see also this video related to the article, and the cover of this issue of the journal.
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