TY - JOUR A1 - Allan, Eric A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Weigelt, Alexandra A1 - Roscher, Christiane A1 - Baade, Jussi A1 - Barnard, Romain L. A1 - Bessler, Holger A1 - Buchmann, Nina A1 - Ebeling, Anne A1 - Eisenhauer, Nico A1 - Engels, Christof A1 - Fergus, Alexander J. F. A1 - Gleixner, Gerd A1 - Gubsch, Marlen A1 - Halle, Stefan A1 - Klein, Alexandra Maria A1 - Kertscher, Ilona A1 - Kuu, Annely A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Le Roux, Xavier A1 - Meyer, Sebastian T. A1 - Migunova, Varvara D. A1 - Milcu, Alexandru A1 - Niklaus, Pascal A. A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Petermann, Jana S. A1 - Poly, Franck A1 - Rottstock, Tanja A1 - Sabais, Alexander C. W. A1 - Scherber, Christoph A1 - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Steinbeiss, Sibylle A1 - Schwichtenberg, Guido A1 - Temperton, Vicky A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Voigt, Winfried A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Wirth, Christian A1 - Schmid, Bernhard T1 - A comparison of the strength of biodiversity effects across multiple functions JF - Oecologia N2 - In order to predict which ecosystem functions are most at risk from biodiversity loss, meta-analyses have generalised results from biodiversity experiments over different sites and ecosystem types. In contrast, comparing the strength of biodiversity effects across a large number of ecosystem processes measured in a single experiment permits more direct comparisons. Here, we present an analysis of 418 separate measures of 38 ecosystem processes. Overall, 45 % of processes were significantly affected by plant species richness, suggesting that, while diversity affects a large number of processes not all respond to biodiversity. We therefore compared the strength of plant diversity effects between different categories of ecosystem processes, grouping processes according to the year of measurement, their biogeochemical cycle, trophic level and compartment (above- or belowground) and according to whether they were measures of biodiversity or other ecosystem processes, biotic or abiotic and static or dynamic. Overall, and for several individual processes, we found that biodiversity effects became stronger over time. Measures of the carbon cycle were also affected more strongly by plant species richness than were the measures associated with the nitrogen cycle. Further, we found greater plant species richness effects on measures of biodiversity than on other processes. The differential effects of plant diversity on the various types of ecosystem processes indicate that future research and political effort should shift from a general debate about whether biodiversity loss impairs ecosystem functions to focussing on the specific functions of interest and ways to preserve them individually or in combination. KW - Bottom-up effects KW - Carbon cycling KW - Ecological synthesis KW - Ecosystem processes KW - Grasslands KW - Jena experiment KW - Nitrogen cycling Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2589-0 SN - 0029-8549 VL - 173 IS - 1 SP - 223 EP - 237 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Dormann, Carsten F. A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Kleinebecker, Till A1 - Hoelzel, Norbert A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Gockel, Sonja A1 - Hemp, Andreas A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Nieschulze, Jens A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Schumacher, Uta A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Wells, Konstans A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Rothenwöhrer, Christoph A1 - Scherber, Christoph A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Weiner, Christiane N. A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Kalko, Elisabeth K. V. A1 - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. T1 - A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization JF - Basic and applied ecology : Journal of the Gesellschaft für Ökologie N2 - Land use is increasingly recognized as a major driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in many current research projects. In grasslands, land use is often classified by categorical descriptors such as pastures versus meadows or fertilized versus unfertilized sites. However, to account for the quantitative variation of multiple land-use types in heterogeneous landscapes, a quantitative, continuous index of land-use intensity (LUI) is desirable. Here we define such a compound, additive LUI index for managed grasslands including meadows and pastures. The LUI index summarizes the standardized intensity of three components of land use, namely fertilization, mowing, and livestock grazing at each site. We examined the performance of the LUI index to predict selected response variables on up to 150 grassland sites in the Biodiversity Exploratories in three regions in Germany(Alb, Hainich, Schorlheide). We tested the average Ellenberg nitrogen indicator values of the plant community, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in the aboveground plant biomass, plant-available phosphorus concentration in the top soil, and soil C/N ratio, and the first principle component of these five response variables. The LUI index significantly predicted the principal component of all five response variables, as well as some of the individual responses. Moreover, vascular plant diversity decreased significantly with LUI in two regions (Alb and Hainich). Inter-annual changes in management practice were pronounced from 2006 to 2008, particularly due to variation in grazing intensity. This rendered the selection of the appropriate reference year(s) an important decision for analyses of land-use effects, whereas details in the standardization of the index were of minor importance. We also tested several alternative calculations of a LUI index, but all are strongly linearly correlated to the proposed index. The proposed LUI index reduces the complexity of agricultural practices to a single dimension and may serve as a baseline to test how different groups of organisms and processes respond to land use. In combination with more detailed analyses, this index may help to unravel whether and how land-use intensities, associated disturbance levels or other local or regional influences drive ecological processes. KW - Agro-ecosystems KW - Biodiversity exploratories KW - Grassland management KW - Land-use impacts KW - Livestock density KW - Meadows KW - Nitrogen KW - Pastures Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2012.04.001 SN - 1439-1791 VL - 13 IS - 3 SP - 207 EP - 220 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Soliveres, Santiago A1 - van der Plas, Fons A1 - Manning, Peter A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Gossner, Martin M. A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Arndt, Hartmut A1 - Baumgartner, Vanessa A1 - Binkenstein, Julia A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Blaser, Stefan A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Böhm, Stefan A1 - Börschig, Carmen A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Diekötter, Tim A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Hölzel, Norbert A1 - Jung, Kirsten A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Kleinebecker, Till A1 - Klemmer, Sandra A1 - Krauss, Jochen A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Morris, E. Kathryn A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Overmann, Jörg A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. A1 - Schaefer, H. Martin A1 - Schloter, Michael A1 - Schmitt, Barbara A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Schrumpf, Marion A1 - Sikorski, Johannes A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Solly, Emily F. A1 - Sonnemann, Ilja A1 - Sorkau, Elisabeth A1 - Steckel, Juliane A1 - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf A1 - Stempfhuber, Barbara A1 - Tschapka, Marco A1 - Türke, Manfred A1 - Venter, Paul C. A1 - Weiner, Christiane N. A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Werner, Michael A1 - Westphal, Catrin A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Wolters, Volkmar A1 - Wubet, Tesfaye A1 - Wurst, Susanne A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Allan, Eric T1 - Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality JF - Nature : the international weekly journal of science Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19092 SN - 0028-0836 SN - 1476-4687 VL - 536 SP - 456 EP - + PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meyer, Sebastian Tobias A1 - Ptacnik, Robert A1 - Hillebrand, Helmut A1 - Bessler, Holger A1 - Buchmann, Nina A1 - Ebeling, Anne A1 - Eisenhauer, Nico A1 - Engels, Christof A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Halle, Stefan A1 - Klein, Alexandra-Maria A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Roscher, Christiane A1 - Rottstock, Tanja A1 - Scherber, Christoph A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Schmid, Bernhard A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Temperton, Vicky M. A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Voigt, Winfried A1 - Weigelt, Alexandra A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. T1 - Biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships depend on identity and number of measured functions JF - Nature Ecology & Evolution N2 - Biodiversity ensures ecosystem functioning and provisioning of ecosystem services, but it remains unclear how biodiversity-ecosystem multifunctionality relationships depend on the identity and number of functions considered. Here, we demonstrate that ecosystem multifunctionality, based on 82 indicator variables of ecosystem functions in a grassland biodiversity experiment, increases strongly with increasing biodiversity. Analysing subsets of functions showed that the effects of biodiversity on multifunctionality were stronger when more functions were included and that the strength of the biodiversity effects depended on the identity of the functions included. Limits to multifunctionality arose from negative correlations among functions and functions that were not correlated with biodiversity. Our findings underline that the management of ecosystems for the protection of biodiversity cannot be replaced by managing for particular ecosystem functions or services and emphasize the need for specific management to protect biodiversity. More plant species from the experimental pool of 60 species contributed to functioning when more functions were considered. An individual contribution to multifunctionality could be demonstrated for only a fraction of the species. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0391-4 SN - 2397-334X VL - 2 IS - 1 SP - 44 EP - 49 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Kleinebecker, Till A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Gossner, Martin M. A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Gockel, Sonja A1 - Hemp, Andreas A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Türke, Manfred A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Hölzel, Norbert T1 - Does organic grassland farming benefit plant and arthropod diversity at the expense of yield and soil fertility? JF - Agriculture, ecosystems & environment : an international journal for scientific research on the relationship of agriculture and food production to the biosphere N2 - Organic management is one of the most popular strategies to reduce negative environmental impacts of intensive agriculture. However, little is known about benefits for biodiversity and potential worsening of yield under organic grasslands management across different grassland types, i.e. meadow, pasture and mown pasture. Therefore, we studied the diversity of vascular plants and foliage-living arthropods (Coleoptera, Araneae, Heteroptera, Auchenorrhyncha), yield, fodder quality, soil phosphorus concentrations and land-use intensity of organic and conventional grasslands across three study regions in Germany. Furthermore, all variables were related to the time since conversion to organic management in order to assess temporal developments reaching up to 18 years. Arthropod diversity was significantly higher under organic than conventional management, although this was not the case for Araneae, Heteroptera and Auchenorrhyncha when analyzed separately. On the contrary, arthropod abundance, vascular plant diversity and also yield and fodder quality did not considerably differ between organic and conventional grasslands. Analyses did not reveal differences in the effect of organic management among grassland types. None of the recorded abiotic and biotic parameters showed a significant trend with time since transition to organic management, except soil organic phosphorus concentrations which decreased with time. This implies that permanent grasslands respond slower and probably weaker to organic management than crop fields do. However, as land-use intensity and inorganic soil phosphorus concentrations were significantly lower in organic grasslands, overcoming seed and dispersal limitation by re-introducing plant species might be needed to exploit the full ecological potential of organic grassland management. We conclude that although organic management did not automatically increase the diversity of all studied taxa, it is a reasonable and useful way to support agro-biodiversity. KW - Agri-environmental schemes KW - Fertilization KW - Fodder quality KW - Land-use intensity KW - Nitrogen KW - Biomass nutrient concentrations KW - Organic farming KW - Phosphorus KW - Species richness KW - Nutrient availability Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.05.019 SN - 0167-8809 VL - 177 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meyer, Sebastian T. A1 - Ebeling, Anne A1 - Eisenhauer, Nico A1 - Hertzog, Lionel A1 - Hillebrand, Helmut A1 - Milcu, Alexandru A1 - Pompe, Sven A1 - Abbas, Maike A1 - Bessler, Holger A1 - Buchmann, Nina A1 - De Luca, Enrica A1 - Engels, Christof A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Gleixner, Gerd A1 - Hudewenz, Anika A1 - Klein, Alexandra-Maria A1 - de Kroon, Hans A1 - Leimer, Sophia A1 - Loranger, Hannah A1 - Mommer, Liesje A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Ravenek, Janneke M. A1 - Roscher, Christiane A1 - Rottstock, Tanja A1 - Scherber, Christoph A1 - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Schmid, Bernhard A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Staudler, Andrea A1 - Strecker, Tanja A1 - Temperton, Vicky A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Vogel, Anja A1 - Voigt, Winfried A1 - Weigelt, Alexandra A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. T1 - Effects of biodiversity strengthen over time as ecosystem functioning declines at low and increases at high biodiversity JF - Ecosphere : the magazine of the International Ecology University KW - biodiversity ecosystem functioning (BEF) KW - ecosystem processes KW - grassland KW - mechanism KW - plant productivity KW - plant species richness KW - temporal effects KW - trophic interactions Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1619 SN - 2150-8925 VL - 7 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Näther, Astrid A1 - Fösel, Bärbel U. A1 - Nägele, Verena A1 - Wüst, Pia K. A1 - Weinert, Jan A1 - Bonkowski, Michael A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Polle, Andrea A1 - Lohaus, Gertrud A1 - Gockel, Sonja A1 - Hemp, Andreas A1 - Kalko, Elisabeth K. V. A1 - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard A1 - Pfeiffer, Simone A1 - Renner, Swen A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Wells, Konstans A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Overmann, Jörg A1 - Friedrich, Michael W. T1 - Environmental factors affect acidobacterial communities below the subgroup level in Grassland and Forest Soils JF - Applied and environmental microbiology N2 - In soil, Acidobacteria constitute on average 20% of all bacteria, are highly diverse, and are physiologically active in situ. However, their individual functions and interactions with higher taxa in soil are still unknown. Here, potential effects of land use, soil properties, plant diversity, and soil nanofauna on acidobacterial community composition were studied by cultivation-independent methods in grassland and forest soils from three different regions in Germany. The analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries representing all studied soils revealed that grassland soils were dominated by subgroup Gp6 and forest soils by subgroup Gp1 Acidobacteria. The analysis of a large number of sites (n = 57) by 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism [T-RFLP] and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE]) showed that Acidobacteria diversities differed between grassland and forest soils but also among the three different regions. Edaphic properties, such as pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, phosphorus, nitrate, ammonium, soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil respiration, had an impact on community composition as assessed by fingerprinting. However, interrelations with environmental parameters among subgroup terminal restriction fragments (T-RFs) differed significantly, e.g., different Gp1 T-RFs correlated positively or negatively with nitrogen content. Novel significant correlations of Acidobacteria subpopulations (i.e., individual populations within subgroups) with soil nanofauna and vascular plant diversity were revealed only by analysis of clone sequences. Thus, for detecting novel interrelations of environmental parameters with Acidobacteria, individual populations within subgroups have to be considered. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01325-12 SN - 0099-2240 VL - 78 IS - 20 SP - 7398 EP - 7406 PB - American Society for Microbiology CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Herold, Nadine A1 - Klarner, Bernhard A1 - Maraun, Mark A1 - Marhan, Sven A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Wubet, Tesfaye A1 - Yurkov, Andrey A1 - Begerow, Dominik A1 - Berner, Doreen A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Daniel, Rolf A1 - Diekötter, Tim A1 - Ehnes, Roswitha B. A1 - Erdmann, Georgia A1 - Fischer, Christiane A1 - Fösel, Baerbel A1 - Groh, Janine A1 - Gutknecht, Jessica A1 - Kandeler, Ellen A1 - Lang, Christa A1 - Lohaus, Gertrud A1 - Meyer, Annabel A1 - Nacke, Heiko A1 - Näther, Astrid A1 - Overmann, Jörg A1 - Polle, Andrea A1 - Pollierer, Melanie M. A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Schloter, Michael A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Schulze, Waltraud X. A1 - Weinert, Jan A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Wolters, Volkmar A1 - Schrumpf, Marion T1 - General relationships between abiotic soil properties and soil biota across spatial scales and different land-use types JF - PLoS one N2 - Very few principles have been unraveled that explain the relationship between soil properties and soil biota across large spatial scales and different land-use types. Here, we seek these general relationships using data from 52 differently managed grassland and forest soils in three study regions spanning a latitudinal gradient in Germany. We hypothesize that, after extraction of variation that is explained by location and land-use type, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in the abundance and diversity of soil biota. If the relationships between predictors and soil organisms were analyzed individually for each predictor group, soil properties explained the highest amount of variation in soil biota abundance and diversity, followed by land-use type and sampling location. After extraction of variation that originated from location or land-use, abiotic soil properties explained significant amounts of variation in fungal, meso-and macrofauna, but not in yeast or bacterial biomass or diversity. Nitrate or nitrogen concentration and fungal biomass were positively related, but nitrate concentration was negatively related to the abundances of Collembola and mites and to the myriapod species richness across a range of forest and grassland soils. The species richness of earthworms was positively correlated with clay content of soils independent of sample location and land-use type. Our study indicates that after accounting for heterogeneity resulting from large scale differences among sampling locations and land-use types, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in fungal and soil fauna abundance or diversity. However, soil biota was also related to processes that act at larger spatial scales and bacteria or soil yeasts only showed weak relationships to soil properties. We therefore argue that more general relationships between soil properties and soil biota can only be derived from future studies that consider larger spatial scales and different land-use types. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043292 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 7 IS - 8 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Allan, Eric A1 - Manning, Pete A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Binkenstein, Julia A1 - Blaser, Stefan A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Böhm, Stefan A1 - Grassein, Fabrice A1 - Hölzel, Norbert A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Kleinebecker, Till A1 - Morris, E. Kathryn A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. A1 - Schaefer, Martin A1 - Schloter, Michael A1 - Schmitt, Barbara A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Schrumpf, Marion A1 - Solly, Emily A1 - Sorkau, Elisabeth A1 - Steckel, Juliane A1 - Steffen-Dewenter, Ingolf A1 - Stempfhuber, Barbara A1 - Tschapka, Marco A1 - Weiner, Christiane N. A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Werner, Michael A1 - Westphal, Catrin A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Fischer, Markus T1 - Land use intensification alters ecosystem multifunctionality via loss of biodiversity and changes to functional composition JF - Ecology letters N2 - Global change, especially land-use intensification, affects human well-being by impacting the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (multifunctionality). However, whether biodiversity loss is a major component of global change effects on multifunctionality in real-world ecosystems, as in experimental ones, remains unclear. Therefore, we assessed biodiversity, functional composition and 14 ecosystem services on 150 agricultural grasslands differing in land-use intensity. We also introduce five multifunctionality measures in which ecosystem services were weighted according to realistic land-use objectives. We found that indirect land-use effects, i.e. those mediated by biodiversity loss and by changes to functional composition, were as strong as direct effects on average. Their strength varied with land-use objectives and regional context. Biodiversity loss explained indirect effects in a region of intermediate productivity and was most damaging when land-use objectives favoured supporting and cultural services. In contrast, functional composition shifts, towards fast-growing plant species, strongly increased provisioning services in more inherently unproductive grasslands. KW - Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning KW - ecosystem services KW - global change KW - land use KW - multifunctionality Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12469 SN - 1461-023X SN - 1461-0248 VL - 18 IS - 8 SP - 834 EP - 843 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Soliveres, Santiago A1 - Manning, Peter A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Gossner, Martin M. A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Arndt, Hartmut A1 - Baumgartner, Vanessa A1 - Binkenstein, Julia A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Blaser, Stefan A1 - Bluethgen, Nico A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Boehm, Stefan A1 - Boerschig, Carmen A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Diekoetter, Tim A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Hoelzel, Norbert A1 - Jung, Kirsten A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Klein, Alexandra-Maria A1 - Kleinebecker, Till A1 - Klemmer, Sandra A1 - Krauss, Jochen A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Morris, E. Kathryn A1 - Mueller, Joerg A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Overmann, Jörg A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. A1 - Schaefer, H. Martin A1 - Schloter, Michael A1 - Schmitt, Barbara A1 - Schoening, Ingo A1 - Schrumpf, Marion A1 - Sikorski, Johannes A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Solly, Emily F. A1 - Sonnemann, Ilja A1 - Sorkau, Elisabeth A1 - Steckel, Juliane A1 - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf A1 - Stempfhuber, Barbara A1 - Tschapka, Marco A1 - Tuerke, Manfred A1 - Venter, Paul A1 - Weiner, Christiane N. A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Werner, Michael A1 - Westphal, Catrin A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Wolters, Volkmar A1 - Wubet, Tesfaye A1 - Wurst, Susanne A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Allan, Eric T1 - Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality JF - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences N2 - Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a land use intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above- and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the community level effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6% of the species tested. Species specific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities. KW - biodiversity KW - common species KW - ecosystem function KW - identity hypothesis KW - land use KW - multitrophic Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0269 SN - 0962-8436 SN - 1471-2970 VL - 371 SP - 3175 EP - 3185 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER -