Multiple dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem processes: Exploring the joint influence of intraspecific, specific and interspecific diversity

Abstract

The positive influence of biodiversity on ecosystem processes was the focus of intense debate in ecology throughout the recent decades, becoming accepted and treated as a new paradigm in contemporary ecology. However, the available literature in this research field extensively explores species richness as an unidimensional measure for biodiversity. The present study explores how different components of biological diversity (number of genotypes, species, and functional groups) can influence an ecosystem process (biomass fixation). A mathematical model was employed and the simulation results showed that species richness per se does not affect the ecosystem productivity. Genotypic richness affected positively the ecosystem, but only if the genotypes are functionally complementary. The functional groups richness always affected positively the simulated ecosystem process. When together, richness at the different components of biological diversity showed stronger effect on ecosystem, and the scenarios with high species, genotypes and functional groups richness were the most productive ones. The results also allowed to observe that the ecosystems which are diverse in terms of functional groups and genotypes can be less susceptible to species loss. Finally, it is argued that a multiple dimension approach to biodiversity is relevant to advance the current knowledge on the relation between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.