Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning decoupled: invariant ecosystem functioning despite non‐random reductions in consumer diversity

Most research that demonstrates enhancement and stabilization of ecosystem functioning due to biodiversity is based on biodiversity manipulations within one trophic level and measuring changes in ecosystem functions provided by that same trophic level. However, it is less understood whether and how modifications of biodiversity at one trophic level propagate vertically to affect those functions supplied by connected trophic levels or by the whole ecosystem. Moreover, most experimental designs in biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research assume random species loss, which may be of little relevance to non-randomly assembled communities. Here, we used data from a published ecotoxicological experiment in which an insecticide gradient was applied as an environmental filter to shape consumer biodiversity. We tested how non-random consumer diversity loss affected gross primary production (an ecosystem function provided by producers) and respiration (an ecosystem function provided by the ecosystem as whole) in species-rich multitrophic freshwater communities (total of 128 macroinvertebrate and 59 zooplankton species across treatments). The insecticide decreased and destabilized macroinvertebrate and, to a lesser extent, zooplankton diversity. However, these effects on biodiversity neither affected nor destabilized any of the two studied ecosystem functions. The main reason for this result was that species susceptible to environmental filtering were different from those most strongly contributing to ecosystem functioning. The insecticide negatively affected the most abundant species, whereas much less abundant species had the strongest effects on ecosystem functioning. The latter finding may be explained by differences in body size and feeding guild membership. Our results indicate that biodiversity modifications within one trophic level induced by non-random species loss do not necessarily translate into changes in ecosystem functioning supported by other trophic levels or by the whole community in the case of limited overlap between sensitivity and functionality.

[1]  K. Sabbe,et al.  Stressor-induced biodiversity gradients: revisiting biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships , 2015 .

[2]  Steve A. Johnson,et al.  Community ecology theory predicts the effects of agrochemical mixtures on aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem properties. , 2014, Ecology letters.

[3]  P. Archambault,et al.  Body size as a predictor of species loss effect on ecosystem functioning , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[4]  J. Fox,et al.  Species Richness and the Temporal Stability of Biomass Production: A New Analysis of Recent Biodiversity Experiments , 2013, The American Naturalist.

[5]  Colin R. Janssen,et al.  The contribution of intra- and interspecific tolerance variability to biodiversity changes along toxicity gradients. , 2013, Ecology letters.

[6]  C. Pilditch,et al.  Size matters: implications of the loss of large individuals for ecosystem function , 2013, Scientific Reports.

[7]  Kevin Gross,et al.  Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Publications Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Biodiversity Simultaneously Enhances the Production and Stability of Community Biomass, but the Effects Are Iindependent Biodiversity Simultaneously Enhances the Production and Stability of Community Bio , 2022 .

[8]  Andy Purvis,et al.  Functional traits, the phylogeny of function, and ecosystem service vulnerability , 2013, Ecology and evolution.

[9]  M. Liess,et al.  Pesticides reduce regional biodiversity of stream invertebrates , 2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[10]  D. Tilman,et al.  Predicting ecosystem stability from community composition and biodiversity. , 2013, Ecology letters.

[11]  Colin R. Janssen,et al.  Using additive modelling to quantify the effect of chemicals on phytoplankton diversity and biomass. , 2013, The Science of the total environment.

[12]  Steve A. Johnson,et al.  Fungicide-induced declines of freshwater biodiversity modify ecosystem functions and services. , 2012, Ecology letters.

[13]  P. Reich,et al.  Impacts of Biodiversity Loss Escalate Through Time as Redundancy Fades , 2012, Science.

[14]  M. E. Bracken,et al.  Realistic losses of rare species disproportionately impact higher trophic levels. , 2012, Ecology letters.

[15]  R. A. Bailey,et al.  Testing effects of consumer richness, evenness and body size on ecosystem functioning. , 2011, The Journal of animal ecology.

[16]  Lin Jiang,et al.  Different Effects of Species Diversity on Temporal Stability in Single‐Trophic and Multitrophic Communities , 2009, The American Naturalist.

[17]  A. Forsyth,et al.  Understanding Trait‐Dependent Community Disassembly: Dung Beetles, Density Functions, and Forest Fragmentation , 2008, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[18]  B. Wilsey,et al.  Dominant Species Constrain Effects of Species Diversity on Temporal Variability in Biomass Production of Tallgrass Prairie , 2007 .

[19]  K. Siimes,et al.  Effects of pesticides on community structure and ecosystem functions in agricultural streams of three biogeographical regions in Europe. , 2007, The Science of the total environment.

[20]  C. Violle,et al.  Let the concept of trait be functional , 2007 .

[21]  Patricia A. Zaradic,et al.  Conservation science: a 20‐year report card , 2006 .

[22]  R. Relyea,et al.  Assessing the ecology in ecotoxicology: a review and synthesis in freshwater systems. , 2006, Ecology letters.

[23]  L. Jost.  Entropy and diversity , 2006 .

[24]  D. Srivastava,et al.  Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Research: Is It Relevant to Conservation? , 2005 .

[25]  N. Williams,et al.  Extinction order and altered community structure rapidly disrupt ecosystem functioning. , 2005, Ecology letters.

[26]  Martin Solan,et al.  Extinction and Ecosystem Function in the Marine Benthos , 2004, Science.

[27]  B. Wilsey,et al.  Realistically Low Species Evenness Does Not Alter Grassland Species-Richness-Productivity Relationships , 2004 .

[28]  R. Nisbet,et al.  Indirect effects of contaminants in aquatic ecosystems. , 2003, The Science of the total environment.

[29]  O. Petchey,et al.  Species richness, environmental fluctuations, and temporal change in total community biomass , 2002 .

[30]  S. Crum,et al.  Effects of a Mixture of Two Insecticides in Freshwater Microcosms: I. Fate of Chlorpyrifos and Lindane and Responses of Macroinvertebrates , 2002, Ecotoxicology.

[31]  Michel Loreau,et al.  Partitioning selection and complementarity in biodiversity experiments , 2001, Nature.

[32]  D. Srivastava,et al.  Numerical and per capita responses to species loss: mechanisms maintaining ecosystem function in a community of stream insect detritivores , 2001 .

[33]  Paul J. Van den Brink,et al.  Principal response curves: Analysis of time‐dependent multivariate responses of biological community to stress , 1999 .

[34]  K. Kersting,et al.  Effects of the insecticide Dursban®4e (active ingredient chlorpyrifos) in outdoor experimental ditches: Responses of ecosystem metabolism , 1997 .

[35]  Paul J. Van den Brink,et al.  Effects of the insecticide dursban® 4E (active ingredient chlorpyrifos) in outdoor experimental ditches: II. Invertebrate community responses and recovery , 1996 .

[36]  Paul J. Van den Brink,et al.  Effects of the insecticide dursban® 4E (active ingredient chlorpyrifos) in outdoor experimental ditches: I. Comparison of short‐term toxicity between the laboratory and the field , 1996 .

[37]  M. G. Boyer,et al.  Some changes in pond chemistry and photosynthetic activity following treatment with increasing concentrations of chlorpyrifos , 1977, Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[38]  M. Hill.  Diversity and Evenness: A Unifying Notation and Its Consequences , 1973 .

[39]  Kevin Gross,et al.  Plant diversity and the stability of foodwebs. , 2011, Ecology letters.

[40]  J. O H A N N E,et al.  Scaling environmental change through the community-level: a trait-based response-and-effect framework for plants , 2008 .

[41]  P. J. van den Brink,et al.  PERPEST Version 1.0, manual and technical description; a model that predicts the ecological risks of pesticides in freshwater ecosystems , 2003 .

[42]  Amy J. Symstad,et al.  Species diversity, functional diversity, and ecosystem functioning , 2002 .

[43]  T. Brock,et al.  Ecological risks of pesticides in freshwater ecosystems; Part 2: insecticides , 2000 .

[44]  S. Hurlbert.  Secondary effects of pesticides on aquatic ecosystems. , 1975, Residue reviews.