“Different species differ in how, when and where they acquire water, nutrients and carbon, and maintain them in the ecosystem. Thus, when many species grow together, they have a wider set of traits that allow them to gain the resources needed,” explains ecologist Peter Reich of the University of Minnesota, who led this research to be published in Science on May 4. This result suggests “no level of diversity loss can occur without adverse effects on ecosystem functioning.” That is the reverse of what numerous studies had previously found, largely because those studies only looked at short-term outcomes.
via How Biodiversity Keeps Earth Alive: Scientific American.
