Biodiversity and the Productivity, Stability and Sustainability of Prairie Ecosystems

9629566蒂尔曼生物多样性和草原生态系统的生产力、稳定性和可持续性由于森林砍伐、城市化和其他人类土地利用的扩张，物种正以前所未有的速度灭绝。这引起了人们对物种丧失对地球生态系统功能可能产生的长期影响的担忧。尽管有许多关于这种潜在影响的假设，但这些想法几乎从未在现场条件下进行过直接测试。这类测试不仅对解决科学争论很重要，而且对向社会提供关于生物多样性丧失可能造成的生态影响的信息也很重要。这项研究将维持和监测一个独特的强大的野外实验，在这个实验中，有342个大草原般的地块对植物生物多样性进行直接实验控制。这项工作将决定这些生态系统的生产力是否以及如何依赖于生物多样性。还将研究生物多样性对土壤肥力可持续性和生态系统稳定性的影响。这将对生态系统功能对生物多样性的假设依赖性进行严格的测试。

9629566 Tilman Biodiversity and the Productivity, Stability, and Sustainability of Prairie Ecosystems Because of deforestation, urbanization, and other expansions of human land use, species are going extinct at unprecedented rates. This has raised concerns about the possible long-term effects of the loss of species on the functioning of Earth's ecosystems. Although there are many hypotheses about such potential effects, these ideas have almost never been directly tested under field conditions. Such tests are important not just to resolve the scientific debate, but to provide society with information on the likely ecological impacts of the loss of biodiversity. This research will maintain and monitor a uniquely powerful field experiment in which there is direct experimental control of plant biodiversity in 342 large prairie-like plots. This work will determine if and how the productivity of these ecosystems depends on biodiversity. The effects of biodiversity will also be studied on the sustainability of soil fertility, and on ecosystem stability. This will provide a rigorous test of the hypothesized dependencies of ecosystem functioning on biodiversity.