作者
Fernando T. Maestre,José L. Quero,Nicholas J. Gotelli,Adrián Escudero,Victoria Ochoa,Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo,Miguel García‐Gómez,Matthew A. Bowker,Santiago Soliveres,Cristina Escolar,Pablo García‐Palacios,Miguel Berdugo,Enrique Valencia,Beatriz Gozalo,Antonio Gallardo,Lorgio E. Aguilera,Tulio Arredondo,Julio Blones,Bertrand Boeken,Donaldo Bran,Abel Augusto Conceição,Omar Cabrera,Mohamed Chaïeb,Mchich Derak,David J. Eldridge,Carlos I. Espinosa,Adriana Florentino,Juan Gaitán,Gabriel Gatica,Wahida Ghiloufi,Susana Gómez‐González,Julio R. Gutiérrez,Rosa Mary Hernández,Xuewen Huang,Elisabeth Huber‐Sannwald,Mohammad Farzam,Maria N. Miriti,Jorge Monerris,Rebecca L. Mau,E. Morici,Kamal Naseri,Abelardo Ospina,Vicente Polo,Aníbal Prina,Eduardo Pucheta,David A. Ramírez,Roberto L. Romão,Matthew Tighe,Cristian Torres‐Díaz,James Val,José P. Veiga,Deli Wang,Eli Zaady
摘要
Global Ecosystem Analysis The relationship between species richness and the functional properties of their ecosystems has often been studied at small scales in experimental plots. Maestre et al. (p. 214 ; see the Perspective by Midgley ) performed field measurements at 224 dryland sites from six continents and assessed 14 ecosystem functions related to carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling. Positive relationships were observed between perennial plant species richness and ecosystem functionality. The relative importance of biodiversity was found to be as large as, or larger than, many key abiotic variables. Thus, preservation of plant biodiversity is important to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands, which collectively cover 41% of Earth's land surface and support over 38% of the human population.