Thursday, August 6, 2009: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Brazos, Albuquerque Convention Center
OOS 38 - Multifunctionality of Biodiversity
The last 10 years have seen an increase in the number of studies investigating the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. While many of these studies have found a decrease in a particular ecosystem function with decreasing biodiversity, most of them have investigated plant productivity or another function directly related to primary productivity. This bias toward the producer level hinders the generalizations that can be made about the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship and it also possibly affected the conclusions drawn in recent meta-analyses (e.g. Balvanera et al. 2006, Ecology Letters 9: 1146-1156 and Cardinale et al. 2006, Nature, 443: 989-992). More recently, studies have gone beyond productivity and plant-related ecosystem processes and investigated the effects of biodiversity on a larger array of ecosystem processes. While this has increased our knowledge of the biodiversity–function relationship considerably, most analyses still consider only one ecosystem process at a time. In the real landscape, however, ecosystems are valued because they provide various services simultaneously and ecologists should understand how biodiversity relates to ecosystem “multifunctionality.” The concept of multifunctionality is also now prevalent in agriculture where farmers are expected to not only optimize production of goods, but also other ecosystem functions such as soil nutrient retention, carbon storage, or the preservation of beneficial insect diversity. Looking beyond single variables and consider the multifunctionality of biodiversity is not simple as there is no prescribed way in which functions should be combined in the analysis of the importance of biodiversity. An important first step in the analysis of multifunctionality was made in a recent paper by Hector and Bagchi (2007, Nature, 448, 188-191) and such approaches need to be extended to advance our understanding of the influence of various components of biodiversity on multiple ecosystem functions further. In our session, theoretical and empirical approaches to the analysis of the multifunctionality of biodiversity will be presented and discussed. We aim at a mixture of talks that focus either on the mathematical or statistical ways to understand multifunctionality (Schmid, Hector, Cardinale, Gamfeldt, Balvanera) or present results of biodiversity experiments where many functions were measured simultaneously (Allan, Tilman). In addition, a number of talks will consider results from real landscapes where the role of biodiversity for various ecosystem functions has been investigated empirically, for agricultural landscapes in Central Europe (Tscharntke, Pywell) or a rain forest in Brazil (Fonseca).
Organizer:Wolfgang Weisser, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena
Co-organizer:Bernhard Schmid, University of Zürich
Moderator:Wolfgang W. Weisser, University of Jena
8:00 AMOOS 38-1The diversity-stability hypothesis: Species interactions or environmental perturbations
Raphael Proulx, Max-Planck-Institute of Biogeochemistry, Christian Wirth, Max-Planck-Institute of Biogeochemistry, >40 co-Authors, >15 Affiliations
8:20 AMOOS 38-2Has 15 years of research underestimated the importance of biodiversity to ecosystem functioning?
J. Emmett Duffy, The College of William and Mary
8:40 AMOOS 38-3Multifunctionality of biodiversity in the agricultural landscape
Christoph Scherber, Georg August University, Yann Clough, Georg August University, Andrea Holzschuh, Georg August University, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Georg August University, Teja Tscharntke, Georg August University
9:00 AMOOS 38-4Biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem functioning across several years
Eric Allan, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena
9:20 AMOOS 38-5How biodiversity supports multiple ecosystem functions: an analysis from the Cedar Creek experiment
Erika Zavaleta, University of California, Jae R. Pasari, University of California, Kristin B. Hulvey, University of California, David Tilman, University of Minnesota
9:40 AM Break
9:50 AMOOS 38-6Multifunctionality in tropical dry forests
Patricia Balvanera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Manuel Beterams, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Francisco Mora, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Radika Bhaskar, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
10:10 AMOOS 38-7Multifunctionality of biodiversity in the Biodepth experiment
Robert Bagchi, University of Oxford, Andrew Hector, University of Zurich
10:30 AMOOS 38-8Differential impact of herbivore richness vs. herbivore identity depends on developmental stage of a coral reef community
Deron E. Burkepile, Florida International University, Mark E. Hay, Georgia Institute of Technology
10:50 AMOOS 38-9The effect of manipulated plant diversity on invertebrate functional groups of different trophic levels in an experimental grassland
Winfried Voigt, University of Jena, Michael Rzanny, University of Jena
11:10 AMOOS 38-10Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates in Sierra Nevada lakes and reservoirs: Patterns of biodiversity, habitat relationships and indications of condition
Molly G. Mehling, Miami University, James T. Oris, Miami University

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