Biodiversity as insurance for ecosystem functioning across multiple scales
Short description
This research project will investigate how variation in the landscape affects the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
The project will manipulate the species composition in marine intertidal algal communities and describe the consequences for biomass production, as well as analyse algal forests across multiple beaches in Great Britain from Cornwall to the Orkney islands. The project will also analyse data on marine fish species around the Australian continent.
The results will make research on the importance of biodiversity more relevant to real ecosystems.
Background
Research over the past thirty years has shown that depleted biodiversity can have negative consequences for important processes in nature. This knowledge is based on hundreds of experiments conducted in small and highly controlled environments.
Unfortunately, we still know alarmingly little about the actual consequences of species loss in the wild, as the environment in natural ecosystems is variable. In the ocean, for example, some beaches are exposed to wind and high waves, while others are sheltered inside a bay. As a consequence of this environmental variation, different species dominate in different places.
But how does this variation in the landscape affect the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function? How can we view the consequences of depleted diversity if we scale up from a single location on a rocky beach to an entire archipelago or an entire continent?
Project implementation
To answer these questions, we will combine a large-scale field experiment with observational field data.
The project will:
- Manipulate the species composition of marine intertidal algal communities on rocky shores in the archipelago off Tjärnö Marina Laboratory, Sweden, and describe the consequences for biomass production.
- Analyse observational data on algal communities on beaches across the whole Great Britain, from Cornwall in the south to the Orkney Islands in the north.
- Analyse data on marine reef-fish species around the Australian continent to understand how our conclusions from studies of marine algae can be translated to significantly more species-rich communities with mobile organisms.
Expected results
Our project will provide knowledge that is critical to make research on the importance of biodiversity relevant to the management of real ecosystems.
Project partners
Dr John Griffin,
Associate Professor, Biosciences
Swansea University, UK
Dr Jon Lefcheck,
Science Integrator, Biodiversity
University of Maryland, USA
