The role of community assembly processes in biodiversity-ecosystems functioning experiments

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A major unresolved question in biodiversity research is, whether effects of species numbers on ecosystem properties can be explained by following the fate of individual species. Two potential mechanisms are niche complementarity or sampling. In the first case species contribute more or less equally to ecosystem properties, whereas in the second case only a single or few species do. To distinguish between the two, the initial densities of species will be varied in sub-plots of constant species number, and the achieved densities will be followed over time. Response variables will be measured at the level of the plant individual ("phytometer"), population and community. With complementarity, the relationship between plant species number and response variables should be stronger when species have similar relative densities (high evenness). With sampling, species dominance (low evenness) should strengthen the relationship.