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Testing biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship in the world’s largest grassland: overview of the IMGRE project

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Abstract

Context

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) is a central topic in ecology on local, regional, and global scales. A powerful approach to BEF studies is large-scale field manipulative experimentation.

Objectives

The Inner Mongolian Grassland Removal Experiment (IMGRE) was designed to examine the mechanisms of the BEF relationship in the world’s largest grassland, explicitly considering multiple trophic levels and grazing by grasshoppers and sheep.

Methods

IMGRE followed a randomized block design, with a total of 512 plots (6 m × 6 m each). The project involved massive field campaigns and laboratory analyses, and unprecedentedly employed two removal protocols in parallel: complete removal (eradicating all targeted functional types) and partial removal (an equal-disturbance removal scheme).

Results

We summarize key findings on aboveground and belowground primary production, functional richness, identity, and composition, compensation at the species, PFT, and community levels, soil water and N retention, net N mineralization, microbial biomass, and grazing by grasshoppers and sheep. Comparing and contrasting results from the two removal protocols, we have found that the responses of ecosystem processes depend on plant functional richness and identity, as well as disturbance characteristics.

Conclusions

As part of the special issue on the ecological patterns and processes in the Inner Mongolian Plateau, this article provides an overview of the IMGRE project. The findings of this project shed new light on the BEF relationship in natural grasslands, and have important implications for ecosystem management in the Mongolian Plateau.

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Acknowledgments

The IMGRE research was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF, DEB-0618193) as well as grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF, NSFC, or CAS. We thank all our collaborators and graduate students from both the Chinese and American institutions for their participation in the IMGRE project. Also, comments from two anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Jianguo Wu

  2. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Shahid Naeem

  3. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4501, USA

    James Elser

  4. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Yongfei Bai, Jianhui Huang, Qingmin Pan, Qibing Wang & Xingguo Han

  5. Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Xingguo Han

  6. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Le Kang & Shuguang Hao

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  1. Jianguo Wu
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  2. Shahid Naeem
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  7. Qingmin Pan
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Correspondence to Jianguo Wu.

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Wu, J., Naeem, S., Elser, J. et al. Testing biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship in the world’s largest grassland: overview of the IMGRE project. Landscape Ecol 30, 1723–1736 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0155-y

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