Macroecological rules predict how biomass scales with species richness in nature.
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| Title: | Macroecological rules predict how biomass scales with species richness in nature. |
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| Authors: | Pigot, Alex L., Dee, Laura E., Richardson, Anthony J., Cooper, Declan L. M., Eisenhauer, Nico, Gregory, Richard D., Lewis, Simon L., Macgregor, Callum J., Massimino, Dario, Maynard, Daniel S., Phillips, Helen R. P., Rillo, Marina, Loreau, Michel, Haegeman, Bart |
| Source: | Science. 3/21/2025, Vol. 387 Issue 6740, p1272-1276. 5p. |
| Subjects: | Macroecology, Biomass, Biodiversity, Biotic communities, Ecosystems |
| Abstract: | Despite advances in theory and experiments, how biodiversity influences the structure and functioning of natural ecosystems remains debated. By applying new theory to data on 84,695 plant, animal, and protist assemblages, we show that the general positive effect of species richness on stocks of biomass, as well as much of the variation in the strength and sign of this effect, is predicted by a fundamental macroecological quantity: the scaling of species abundance with body mass. Standing biomass increases with richness when large-bodied species are numerically rare but is independent of richness when species size and abundance are uncoupled. These results suggest a new fundamental law in the structure of ecological communities and show that the impacts of changes in species richness on biomass are predictable. Editor's summary: The number of species in an ecosystem relates to several other key properties, including biomass and stability across time. Two studies in this issue combine theory with existing data on multiple taxonomic groups to understand these relationships. Pigot et al. show that biomass generally increases with species richness because large-bodied species tend to be rare. Liang et al. show that ecosystem stability increases with area because of its relationship with biodiversity. Larger areas tend to have more species and more asynchrony between species, leading to greater stability. Together, these studies provide further insight into how biodiversity affects other ecosystem properties. —Bianca Lopez [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Despite advances in theory and experiments, how biodiversity influences the structure and functioning of natural ecosystems remains debated. By applying new theory to data on 84,695 plant, animal, and protist assemblages, we show that the general positive effect of species richness on stocks of biomass, as well as much of the variation in the strength and sign of this effect, is predicted by a fundamental macroecological quantity: the scaling of species abundance with body mass. Standing biomass increases with richness when large-bodied species are numerically rare but is independent of richness when species size and abundance are uncoupled. These results suggest a new fundamental law in the structure of ecological communities and show that the impacts of changes in species richness on biomass are predictable. Editor's summary: The number of species in an ecosystem relates to several other key properties, including biomass and stability across time. Two studies in this issue combine theory with existing data on multiple taxonomic groups to understand these relationships. Pigot et al. show that biomass generally increases with species richness because large-bodied species tend to be rare. Liang et al. show that ecosystem stability increases with area because of its relationship with biodiversity. Larger areas tend to have more species and more asynchrony between species, leading to greater stability. Together, these studies provide further insight into how biodiversity affects other ecosystem properties. —Bianca Lopez [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 00368075 |
| DOI: | 10.1126/science.adq3278 |
