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Plant Species Diversity Mediates Ecosystem Stability of Natural Dune Grasslands in Response to Drought

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Abstract

How plant species diversity can mediate the temporal stability of ecosystem functioning during periods of environmental stress is still a pressing question in ecology, certainly in the context of predicted increasing frequencies and intensities of climate extremes, such as drought. The vast majority of empirical research in this context is based on relatively small-scaled experiments, where plant species composition is manipulated and ecosystem functions, such as biomass production, are monitored through time. Results of these studies have generally shown that ecosystem functioning is more stable in more species-diverse communities. Yet, there is very little evidence so far that these relations also hold in naturally assembled plant communities. In this study, we combined historical vegetation and climate data with time series of remotely sensed indicators of aboveground biomass production (MODIS NDVI), to quantify how plant species diversity and plant functional diversity correlate with the temporal stability of biomass production in naturally assembled Dutch dune grasslands under the influence of fluctuating drought. We found that the negative NDVI response to drought of grasslands with a higher plant species richness and diversity was significantly lower than the response of less species rich and species-diverse grasslands, indicating a stabilizing role of plant species richness and diversity on biomass production through time. We found no relation between plant functional diversity and NDVI response to drought. This is the first study to generalize experimentally established relations between species diversity and stability of ecosystem functioning to naturally assembled grasslands across a large spatial and temporal scale.

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Acknowledgments

This study profits from the work of many contributors who added to the several databases on vegetation and plant traits. This study was funded by the Flemish fund for Scientific research (FWO Vlaanderen, Project G.0320.12), and by a KULeuven BOF-OT Grant.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Plant Conservation and Population Biology, Biology Department, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

      Nils M. van Rooijen & Olivier Honnay

    2. Department of Biosystems, M3-BIORES, KU Leuven, Willem de Croylaan 34, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

      Wanda de Keersmaecker & Pol Coppin

    3. Alterra, Wageningen University & Research Centre, Droevendaalsesteeg 100, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

      Wim A. Ozinga, Stephan M. Hennekens & Joop H. J. Schaminée

    4. Department of Experimental Plant Ecology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Heijendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

      Nils M. van Rooijen, Wim A. Ozinga & Joop H. J. Schaminée

    5. Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

      Ben Somers

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    Correspondence to Nils M. van Rooijen.

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    Nils M. van Rooijen and Wanda de Keersmaecker have contributed equally to this study.

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    WdK, BS, SH, and NMvR compiled the dataset. OH and BS conceived the study. WO, JS, BS, and OH contributed to the methodology. WdK and NMvR analyzed the data and wrote the paper; all authors contributed to the discussion and the editing of the manuscript.

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    van Rooijen, N.M., de Keersmaecker, W., Ozinga, W.A. et al. Plant Species Diversity Mediates Ecosystem Stability of Natural Dune Grasslands in Response to Drought. Ecosystems 18, 1383–1394 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-015-9905-6

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