How Does Biodiversity Relate to Ecosystem Functioning in Natural Ecosystems?

2020 ◽  
pp. 338-354
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Natural Ecosystems

scholarly journals Urban Ecosystem-Level Biomimicry and Regenerative Design: Linking Ecosystem Functioning and Urban Built Environments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Blanco ◽  
Maibritt Pedersen Zari ◽  
Kalina Raskin ◽  
Philippe Clergeau
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Ecosystem Health ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Ecosystem Level ◽  
Regenerative Design

By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will likely live in cities. Human settlements depend on resources, benefits, and services from ecosystems, but they also tend to deplete ecosystem health. To address this situation, a new urban design and planning approach is emerging. Based on regenerative design, ecosystem-level biomimicry, and ecosystem services theories, it proposes designing projects that reconnect urban space to natural ecosystems and regenerate whole socio-ecosystems, contributing to ecosystem health and ecosystem services production. In this paper, we review ecosystems as models for urban design and review recent research on ecosystem services production. We also examine two illustrative case studies using this approach: Lavasa Hill in India and Lloyd Crossing in the U.S.A. With increasing conceptualisation and application, we argue that the approach contributes positive impacts to socio-ecosystems and enables scale jumping of regenerative practices at the urban scale. However, ecosystem-level biomimicry practices in urban design to create regenerative impact still lack crucial integrated knowledge on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services productions, making it less effective than potentially it could be. We identify crucial gaps in knowledge where further research is needed and pose further relevant research questions to make ecosystem-level biomimicry approaches aiming for regenerative impact more effective.

The European Ecotron of Montpellier: experimental platforms to study ecosystem response to climate change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Sauze ◽  
Jacques Roy ◽  
Clément Piel ◽  
Damien Landais ◽  
Emmanuel S Gritti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Experimental Unit ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Canopy Area ◽  
The Impact

<p>The sustainability of agricultural, forested and other managed or natural ecosystems is critical for the future of mankind. However, the services provided by these ecosystems are under threat due to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and land use changes. In order to face the challenges of preserving or improving ecosystems services and securing food supply we need to understand and forecast how ecosystems will respond to current and future changes. To help answer those questions Ecotrons facilities are born. Such infrastructures provide sets of confinement units for the manipulation of environmental conditions and real-time measurement of ecological processes under controlled and reproduceable conditions, bridging the gap between the complexity of in natura studies and the simplicity of laboratory experiments.</p><p>The European Ecotron of Montpellier (www.ecotron.cnrs.fr) is an experimental research infrastructure for the study of the impact of climate change on ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. This infrastructure offers, through calls open to the international community, three experimental platforms at different scales. The Macrocosms platform is composed of twelve 40 m<sup>3</sup> units, each able to host 2-12 t lysimeters, with a 2-5 m² canopy area and a soil depth of up to 2 m. The Mesocosms one has eighteen 2-4 m<sup>3</sup> units, each able to host lysimeters of 0.4-1 m depth and 0.4-1 m² area. The Microcosms platform consists of growth chambers (1 m height, 1 m² area) in which smaller units (with photosynthetic plants, soils, insects, etc.) can be installed. Each experimental unit of each platform allows to confine terrestrial ecosystems. This way, environmental parameters such as temperature (-10 to +50 °C), relative humidity (20-80 %), precipitation (sprinkler or drip) and atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration (200-1000 ppm) are strictly and continuously controlled and recorded. But the uniqueness of the European Ecotron of Montpellier lies on its ability to also continuously measure, in each unit, net gas exchange (evapotranspiration, CO<sub>2</sub> / CH<sub>4</sub> / N<sub>2</sub>O net fluxes) that occur in between the ecosystem studied and the atmosphere, as well as CO<sub>2</sub>, H<sub>2</sub>O, N<sub>2</sub>O and O<sub>2</sub> isotopologues. Those tools are powerful and remarkable to access additional information about processus involved in ecosystem functioning.</p><p>The aim of this presentation is to describe the Macrocosms and the Mesocosms platforms through examples of international projects recently run in these platforms.</p>

scholarly journals Understanding the value of plant diversity for ecosystem functioning through niche theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1844) ◽  
pp. 20160536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay A. Turnbull ◽  
Forest Isbell ◽  
Drew W. Purves ◽  
Michel Loreau ◽  
Andy Hector
Keyword(s):  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Real World ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Niche Theory ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Simple Mapping

Biodiversity experiments have generated robust empirical results supporting the hypothesis that ecosystems function better when they contain more species. Given that ecosystems provide services that are valued by humans, this inevitably suggests that the loss of species from natural ecosystems could diminish their value. This raises two important questions. First, will experimental results translate into the real world, where species are being lost at an alarming rate? And second, what are the benefits and pitfalls of such valuation exercises? We argue that the empirical results obtained in experiments are entirely consistent with well-established theories of species coexistence. We then examine the current body of work through the lens of niche theory and highlight where closer links with theory could open up opportunities for future research. We argue that niche theory predicts that diversity–functioning relationships are likely to be stronger (and require more species) in the field than in simplified experimental settings. However, we caution that while many of the biological processes that promote coexistence can also generate diversity–function relationships, there is no simple mapping between the two. This implies that valuation exercises need to proceed with care.

scholarly journals A checklist of aquatic macrophytes of the Guaraguaçu river basin reveals a target for conservation in the Atlantic rainforest

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. e50542
Author(s):  
Eliélton da Silva Araújo ◽  
Jean Ricardo Simões Vitule ◽  
Andre Andrian Padial
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Aquatic Macrophytes ◽  
Aquatic Macrophyte ◽  
Biological Conservation ◽  
Aquatic Habitats ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Anthropic Impact ◽  
Macrophyte Species ◽  
Herbarium Collection

Describing and understanding distribution of species in natural ecosystems is the first step to establish conservation efforts. In aquatic habitats, macrophytes play a central role in promoting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This study aimed to create the first checklist of aquatic macrophyte species occurring in the Guaraguaçu river, the largest river in Paraná State coast, Brazil. Species herborized, identified and incorporated into the Herbarium collection of the Universidade Federal do Paraná. A total of 47 species were registered corresponding to 37 genera and 29 botanical families; Cyperaceae and Poaceae were the most representative families. In addition, the wide invasion of the non-native species Urochloa arrecta (Hack. ex T. Durand & Schinz) Morrone & Zuloaga was registered and the presence of the floating-leaved non-native species Nymphaea caerulea Savugny was recorded. Even so, the inventory shows a noteworthy richness of aquatic macrophytes species in the Guaraguaçu river, and it is clear macrophyte species reflect a gradient of anthropic impact and salinity in this tidal estuarine river. Our study contributes to the creation of public policies to aid in the protection of this river that represents a central site for biological conservation efforts, yet is constantly threatened by anthropic activities.

scholarly journals Diversity reduces extinction risk at global scales

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Weeks ◽  
Shahid Naeem ◽  
Jesse R. Lasky ◽  
Joseph A. Tobias
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Small Range ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Large Body Size ◽  
Threat Status ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Increased Risk

AbstractIncreases in biodiversity often lead to greater, and less variable, levels of ecosystem functioning. However, whether species are therefore less likely to go extinct in more diverse systems is unclear. We use comprehensive estimates of avian taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity to characterize the global relationship between multiple dimensions of diversity and extinction risk in birds. We find that more diverse assemblages have lower mean IUCN threat status despite being composed of species with attributes that make them more vulnerable to extinction, such as large body size or small range size. Our analyses also reveal that this reduction of current threat status associated with greater diversity far outweighs the increased risk associated with the accumulation of extinction-prone species in more diverse assemblages. These results suggest that species conservation targets can best be achieved by maintaining high levels of overall biodiversity in natural ecosystems.

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