Abstract
The relationship between productivity and biodiversity has long been an important issue in ecological research. However, in recent decades, most ecologists have primarily focused on species diversity while paying little attention to functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity (PD), especially in alpine meadow communities following fertilization. In this study, a fertilization experiment involving the addition of nitrogen, phosphorus, and a mixture of both was implemented in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Species diversity, functional diversity, and PD were measured, and the responses of these parameters to the variation in productivity were analyzed. We found that the productivity of alpine plant communities was colimited by N and P, with N being the principal and P being the secondary limiting nutrient. Our results supported the prediction of both the mass ratio hypothesis and niche complementarity hypothesis in fertilized communities, but these hypotheses were not mutually exclusive. The combination of different aspects of biodiversity not only provides a crucial tool to explain the variation in productivity and to understand the underlying mechanisms but also plays an important role in predicting the variation in productivity of alpine meadow communities, which are sensitive to nutrient enrichment in the context of global change.
Highlights
For more than 30 years, the pattern of the relationship between productivity and biodiversity has been a widely debated topic in ecology (Adler et al, 2011; Isbell et al, 2013; Kessler, Salazar, Homeier, & Kluge, 2014)
One of the most important reasons for this uncertainty is that biodiversity is a multifaceted concept that encompasses different categories such as species, functional diversity, and phylogenetic diversity (PD; Cadotte, Cavender-B ares, Tilman, & Oakley, 2009; Díaz, Fargione, Chapin, & Tilman, 2006; Willig, 2011), but in previous studies, researchers have primarily focused on species diversity while paying little attention to functional diversity and PD (Crawley et al, 2005; Gough, Osenberg, Gross, & Collins, 2000; Hector et al, 1999; Jucker et al, 2015)
We systematically tested 16 diversity indices associated with species diversity, functional diversity, and PD to explain and predict the variation in community productivity following the addition of N, P, and N + P
Summary
For more than 30 years, the pattern of the relationship between productivity and biodiversity has been a widely debated topic in ecology (Adler et al, 2011; Isbell et al, 2013; Kessler, Salazar, Homeier, & Kluge, 2014). Cadotte et al (2009) found the PD best explains community productivity patterns in comparison with species diversity and functional diversity, while Niu et al (2013) revealed a negative relationship between community biomass and species diversity but a positive correlation between community biomass and functional diversity following fertilization of an alpine meadow. We systematically tested 16 diversity indices associated with species diversity, functional diversity, and PD to explain and predict the variation in community productivity following the addition of N, P, and N + P To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically study the relationships between productivity and three different aspects of biodiversity (SD, PD, and FD) through an N and P fertilization experiment in this region. We asked the following questions: (1) Which nutrient, nitrogen or phosphorus, limits productivity in alpine meadows? (2) Among the diversity measures considered, which is the best and how can they explain the variation in productivity after fertilization in combination? (3) What is the mechanism underlying these patterns?
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