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》(公法111-5)资助的。越来越多的人将注意力转向更有效地从生物多样性-生态系统功能研究过渡到研究实际物种丧失的持续和潜在后果的重要性。加州植物区系省将研究非随机植物物种减少和损失对多种关键生态系统过程的影响，该省是全球植物多样性受到威胁的热点。将使用实验方法来比较随机和有序的植物生物多样性变化对多种生态系统功能的影响。研究系统是一个特有丰富的蛇纹状草地生态系统，实验草地群落将包括16种乡土、一年生和多年生杂草和草本植物。这些试验田将被用来测试物种功能特征在塑造生态系统过程对逐渐减少的多样性的反应中的重要性。该项目将为一名博士后研究员、一名博士生、大约20名本科生实习生和数十名本科生提供培训、指导和研究经验，他们将在每年春季的生态田野方法课程中访问该实验。由于这项实验将作为在研究地点进行的季节性公共野花之旅的信息站，因此将产生更多的公众宣传。

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.