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Context-dependency and the effects of species diversity on ecosystem function

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Abstract

High species diversity often enhances ecosystem function; however, the effects of diversity have not been commonly explored in the context of natural ecosystem variation. In intermountain grassland, it has been reported that Pinus ponderosa canopies and litter reduces the diversity of native species and increases the abundance of Bromus tectorum, an invasive species. Thus this is a realistic system for exploring context-dependency in the effects of diversity on ecosystem function. We established native plant assemblages that varied in species richness and crossed each species richness level with Pinus litter addition. All plots were experimentally invaded with B. tectorum, allowing us to explore context-dependency in the effects of native diversity on community productivity and resistance to exotic invasion. Native polycultures had higher native plant cover, a surrogate for productivity, and stronger resistance to Bromus invasion relative to monocultures. We found that species-independent complementarity effect was the main contributor to the diversity effect on native plant cover, which increased as species richness in polycultures increased. Species-dependent complementarity/selection effects on native cover were negligible, and neither complementarity nor selection effects on native resistance to invasion varied with native richness. Pinus litter had no direct effect on native cover or Bromus performance, but decreased the effects of high native diversity on native cover and increased the effects of high native diversity on native resistance to Bromus. Thus we found some evidence for context-dependency and that low species richness under Pinus canopies might facilitate Bromus invasion. Importantly, the diversity-dependent increase in native plant cover was not correlated with diversity-dependent increases in resistance to invasion among plots, suggesting different mechanisms for how diversity enhances productivity versus resistance.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Judit Nyulasi, Priscila Silvera, Kimberly Ledger, Kevin Moore, Shengpeng Zuo and Hongli Li for help with our field experiment. We thank Rebecca Fletcher and David Hooper for their help on setting up the auto-irrigation system in field. This project was funded by National Natural Science Foundation, China (NSFC 31030015), China Scholarship Council and the Scientific Research Foundation, Hongda Zhang, Sun Yat-sen University. RMC thanks the Montana Institute on Ecosystems and NSF EPSCoR Track-1 EPS-1101342 (INSTEP 3) for support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Huixuan Liao & Shaolin Peng

  2. Key Laboratory for Wetland Ecology and Vegetation Restoration of National Environmental Protection, The Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130117, China

    Wenbo Luo

  3. Montana Tech of the University of Montana, Butte, MT, 59701, USA

    Robert Pal

  4. Division of Biological Sciences and the Institute on Ecosystems, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, 59812, USA

    Ragan M. Callaway

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  1. Huixuan Liao
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  2. Wenbo Luo
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  3. Robert Pal
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  4. Shaolin Peng
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  5. Ragan M. Callaway
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shaolin Peng or Ragan M. Callaway.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and Figs. 3, 4.

Table 5 The final sample sizes for each combination of species richness level and litter treatment
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Table 6 Results of t tests for diversity effects (BE, SIE, SDDE and SDCE) on plant cover and resistance to Bromus invasion for native assemblages
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Table 7 Results of t tests for the effect of Pinus litter on how diversity affects plant cover and the resistance of native assemblages to Bromus
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Table 8 Results of general linear models for the effects of Pinus litter on the growth of Bromus in Bromus monocultures
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Table 9 Results of general linear models for the effects of Pinus litter and individual species on the cover and resistance of native monocultures
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Fig. 3
figure 3

Plot design for the common garden experiment. Top left experimental plots with stakes marking the top left corners of each plot. Bottom left a single experimental plot. Right the positions of native species and Bromus in each plot

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Fig. 4
figure 4

The relative over-yielding and over-resistance of each individual species at different richness level in polycultures. Means and 1 SE are shown. Ach—Achillea millefolium, Art—Artemisia frigida, Fes—Festuca idahoensis, Gai—Gaillardia aristata, Ger—Geranium viscosisimum, Lin—Linum perenne, Koe—Koeleria macrantha, Poa—Poa secunda, Pse—Pseudoroegneria spicata, Sti—Stipa comata. Refer to Table 4 for statistics

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Liao, H., Luo, W., Pal, R. et al. Context-dependency and the effects of species diversity on ecosystem function. Biol Invasions 18, 3063–3079 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1202-6

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