Biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality: Do species loss order and richness matter in a native-dominated serpentine ecosystem?

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Growing attention has turned to the importance of bridging more effectively from biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research to studies of the ongoing and potential consequences of actual species losses. The effects of non-random plant species declines and losses on multiple, key ecosystem processes will be examined in the California Floristic Province, a global hotspot for threatened plant diversity. An experimental approach will be used to compare the effects of randomized and ordered plant biodiversity changes on multiple ecosystem functions. The study system is an endemic-rich serpentine grassland ecosystem of conservation concern, and the experimental grassland communities will include 16 native, annual and perennial forb and grass species. These experimental plots will be used to test the importance of species functional traits in shaping the responses of ecosystem processes to progressive diversity declines. The project will provide training, mentoring, and research experience for a postdoctoral fellow, a Ph.D. student, approximately 20 undergraduate interns, and several dozen undergraduate students who will visit the experiment as part of an ecological field methods class each spring. Additional public outreach will result because the experiment will serve as an informational stop on seasonal public wildflower tours that take place at the study site.