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

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。越来越多的注意力已经转向更有效地从生物多样性-生态系统功能研究到实际物种损失的持续和潜在后果研究的重要性。非随机植物物种的下降和损失的影响，多个关键的生态系统过程将在加州植物区系省，一个全球热点的受威胁的植物多样性进行检查。将采用实验方法比较随机和有序植物生物多样性变化对多种生态系统功能的影响。该研究系统是一个地方性丰富的蛇形草地生态系统的保护关注，和实验草地社区将包括16个本地，一年生和多年生杂类草和草物种。这些试验田将被用来测试物种功能性状的重要性，在塑造生态系统过程的反应，逐步多样性下降。该项目将为一名博士后、一名博士和一名研究生提供培训、指导和研究经验。学生，大约20名本科生实习生，和几十名本科生谁将参观实验的一部分，生态场方法类每年春天。额外的公共宣传将导致，因为实验将作为一个信息站的季节性公共野花图尔斯旅游发生在研究中心。

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.