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Article
General Destabilizing Effects of Eutrophication on Grassland Productivity at Multiple Spatial Scales
Nature Communications
  • Yann Hautier, Utrecht University
  • Pengfei Zhang, Utrecht University
  • Michel Loreau, Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling
  • Kevin R. Wilcox, University of Wyoming
  • Eric W. Seabloom, University of Minnesota
  • Elizabeth T. Borer, University of Minnesota
  • Jarrett E. K. Byrnes, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Sally E. Koerner, University of North Carolina Greensboro
  • Kimberly J. Komatsu, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
  • Jonathan S. Lefcheck, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
  • Andy Hector, University of Oxford
  • Peter B. Adler, Utah State University
  • Juan Alberti, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras
  • Carlos A. Arnillas, University of Toronto
  • Jonathan D. Bakker, University of Washington
  • et al., et al.
Document Type
Article
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Publication Date
10-23-2020
Disciplines
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Abstract

Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant species exhibit greater asynchronous dynamics among species in response to natural environmental fluctuations, resulting in greater local stability (alpha stability). Moreover, neighborhood communities that have greater spatial variation in plant species composition within sites (higher beta diversity) have greater spatial asynchrony of productivity among communities, resulting in greater stability at the larger scale (gamma stability). Importantly, fertilization consistently weakens the contribution of plant diversity to both of these stabilizing mechanisms, thus diminishing the positive effect of biodiversity on stability at differing spatial scales. Our findings suggest that preserving grassland functional stability requires conservation of plant diversity within and among ecological communities.

Citation Information
Hautier, Y., Zhang, P., Loreau, M. et al. General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales. Nat Commun 11, 5375 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4