The Diversity of Benthic Diatoms Affects Ecosystem Productivity in Heterogeneous Coastal Environments

Leena Virta,Janne Soininen,Johanna Gammal,Alf Norkko,Marie Järnström,Joanna Norkko,Guillaume Bernard

doi:10.1002/bes2.1597

Abstract

The Diversity of Benthic Diatoms Affects Ecosystem Productivity in Heterogeneous Coastal Environments

Highlights

Global biodiversity is diminishing at an alarming rate in most ecosystems
The final structural equation models (SEM) with diatom trait diversity explained 15% of variation in ecosystem productivity and indicated that diatom trait diversity was controlled by principal component analysis (PCA) axis 1, and ecosystem productivity was controlled by diatom trait diversity (Fig. 1b)
Microorganisms are vital to all ecosystems, but our knowledge about the relationship between their diversity and ecosystem productivity is still poor

Summary

Introduction

Global biodiversity is diminishing at an alarming rate in most ecosystems. Given that biodiversity plays a large functional role in nature, the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, such as productivity, has received considerable attention (Tilman et al 1996, Paquette and Messier 2011), and ecologists widely agree on the existence of positive or unimodal relationships between macro-organismal diversity and ecosystemManuscript received 12 October 2018; revised April 2019; accepted April 2019. Global biodiversity is diminishing at an alarming rate in most ecosystems. Given that biodiversity plays a large functional role in nature, the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, such as productivity, has received considerable attention (Tilman et al 1996, Paquette and Messier 2011), and ecologists widely agree on the existence of positive or unimodal relationships between macro-organismal diversity and ecosystem. Manuscript received 12 October 2018; revised April 2019; accepted April 2019. Diversity-productivity—relationships have traditionally been studied using regression analyses and structural equation models that focus on average responses. The usefulness of these approaches is restricted by heteroscedasticity (Breusch and Pagan 1979), which is typical for ecological data sets.

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Conclusion