Comment on “Impacts of species richness on productivity in a large-scale subtropical forest experiment”

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6423) ◽  
pp. eaav9117
Author(s):  
Hua Yang ◽  
Zhongling Guo ◽  
Xiuli Chu ◽  
Rongzhou Man ◽  
Jiaxin Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Productivity ◽  
Subtropical Forest ◽  
Species Loss ◽  
Subtropical China

Huang et al. (Reports, 5 October 2018, p. 80) report significant increases in forest productivity from monocultures to multispecies mixtures in subtropical China. However, their estimated productivity decrease due to a 10% tree species loss seems high. We propose that including species richness distribution of the study forests would provide more meaningful estimates of forest-scale responses.

scholarly journals Response to Comment on “Impacts of species richness on productivity in a large-scale subtropical forest experiment”

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6423) ◽  
pp. eaav9863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Bruelheide ◽  
Yuxin Chen ◽  
Yuanyuan Huang ◽  
Keping Ma ◽  
Pascal A. Niklaus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Subtropical Forest ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Tree Species Richness ◽  
Species Pools

Yang et al. have raised criticism that the results reported by us would not be relevant for natural forests. We argue that productivity is positively related to species richness also in subtropical natural forests, and that both the species pools and the range of tree species richness used in our experiment are representative of many natural forests of this biome.

scholarly journals Hydraulic diversity stabilizes productivity in a large-scale subtropical tree biodiversity experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Schnabel ◽  
Xiaojuan Liu ◽  
Matthias Kunz ◽  
Kathryn E. Barry ◽  
Franca J. Bongers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Forest Productivity ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Tree Species Richness

AbstractExtreme climatic events threaten forests and their climate mitigation potential globally. Understanding the drivers promoting ecosystems stability is therefore considered crucial to mitigate adverse climate change effects on forests. Here, we use structural equation models to explain how tree species richness, asynchronous species dynamics and diversity in hydraulic traits affect the stability of forest productivity along an experimentally manipulated biodiversity gradient ranging from 1 to 24 tree species. Tree species richness improved stability by increasing species asynchrony. That is at higher species richness, inter-annual variation in productivity among tree species buffered the community against stress-related productivity declines. This effect was mediated by the diversity of species’ hydraulic traits in relation to drought tolerance and stomatal control, but not the community-weighted means of these traits. Our results demonstrate important mechanisms by which tree species richness stabilizes forest productivity, thus emphasizing the importance of hydraulically diverse, mixed-species forests to adapt to climate change.

scholarly journals Impacts of species richness on productivity in a large-scale subtropical forest experiment

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6410) ◽  
pp. 80-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Huang ◽  
Yuxin Chen ◽  
Nadia Castro-Izaguirre ◽  
Martin Baruffol ◽  
Matteo Brezzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Subtropical Forest ◽  
Species Loss ◽  
Shrub Species ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Functional And Phylogenetic Diversity

Biodiversity experiments have shown that species loss reduces ecosystem functioning in grassland. To test whether this result can be extrapolated to forests, the main contributors to terrestrial primary productivity, requires large-scale experiments. We manipulated tree species richness by planting more than 150,000 trees in plots with 1 to 16 species. Simulating multiple extinction scenarios, we found that richness strongly increased stand-level productivity. After 8 years, 16-species mixtures had accumulated over twice the amount of carbon found in average monocultures and similar amounts as those of two commercial monocultures. Species richness effects were strongly associated with functional and phylogenetic diversity. A shrub addition treatment reduced tree productivity, but this reduction was smaller at high shrub species richness. Our results encourage multispecies afforestation strategies to restore biodiversity and mitigate climate change.

Hydraulic diversity stabilizes forest productivity in a large-scale subtropical tree biodiversity experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Schnabel ◽  
Xiaojuan Liu ◽  
Matthias Kunz ◽  
Kathryn E. Barry ◽  
Franca J. Bongers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Forest Productivity ◽  
Species Tree ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Mixed Species ◽  
Tree Species Richness

<p>Extreme climatic events such as droughts threaten forests and their climate mitigation potential globally. Stability, the ability of forests to maintain functioning in periods of stress, is therefore expected to be a primary focus of forest management in the 21st century. A key management strategy suggested for enhancing stability may be to increase tree species richness in secondary and plantation forests. Here, we aim to understand the drivers that may promote forest stability in mixed-species tree communities. We use structural equation models to explain how tree species richness, asynchronous species dynamics and diversity in hydraulic traits affect the stability of yearly forest productivity along an experimentally manipulated biodiversity gradient ranging from monocultures up to mixtures of 24 tree species. Tree species richness improved stability by increasing species asynchrony. That is, at higher species richness, inter-annual variation in productivity among tree species buffered the community against stress-related productivity declines. This effect was mediated by diversity in species’ hydraulic traits in relation to drought tolerance and stomatal control within the community, but not by the community-weighted means of these hydraulic traits. The examined hydraulic traits may be used to select suitable tree species and design mixtures that stabilize productivity in an increasingly variable climate through diverse response strategies, while excluding those that would succumb to drought or competition. The identified mechanisms by which tree species richness stabilizes forest productivity emphasize the importance of hydraulically diverse, mixed-species forests to adapt to climate change.</p>

Tree species richness modulates water supply in the local tree neighbourhood: evidence from wood δ 13 C signatures in a large-scale forest experiment

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1946) ◽  
pp. 20203100
Author(s):  
Kirstin Jansen ◽  
Goddert von Oheimb ◽  
Helge Bruelheide ◽  
Werner Härdtle ◽  
Andreas Fichtner
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Isotope Composition ◽  
Tree Diversity ◽  
Tree Species Richness ◽  
Neighbourhood Scale

Biodiversity is considered to mitigate the adverse effects of changing precipitation patterns. However, our understanding of how tree diversity at the local neighbourhood scale modulates the water use and leaf physiology of individual trees remains unclear. We made use of a large-scale tree diversity experiment in subtropical China to study eight tree species along an experimentally manipulated gradient of local neighbourhood tree species richness. Twig wood carbon isotope composition ( δ 13 C wood ) was used as an indicator for immediate leaf-level responses to water availability in relation to local neighbourhood conditions and a target tree's functional traits. Across species, a target tree's δ 13 C wood signatures decreased progressively with increasing neighbourhood species richness, with effects being strongest at high neighbourhood shading intensity. Moreover, the δ 13 C wood -shading relationship shifted from positive (thin-leaved species) or neutral (thick-leaved species) in conspecific to negative in heterospecific neighbourhoods, most likely owing to a lower interspecific competition for water and microclimate amelioration. This suggests that promoting tree species richness at the local neighbourhood scale may improve a tree's local water supply with potential effects for an optimized water-use efficiency of tree communities during drought. This assumption, however, requires validation by further studies that focus on mechanisms that regulate the water availability in mixtures.

scholarly journals Positive effects of tree species richness on fine-root production in a subtropical forest in SE-China

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenkai Sun ◽  
Xiaojuan Liu ◽  
Bernhard Schmid ◽  
Helge Bruelheide ◽  
Wensheng Bu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Fine Root ◽  
Subtropical Forest ◽  
Root Production ◽  
Fine Root Production ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Tree Species Richness ◽  
Se China

scholarly journals Neither global nor consistent: a technical comment on the tree diversity-productivity analysis of Liang et al. (2016)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten F. Dormann ◽  
Helge Schneider ◽  
Jonas Gorges
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Forest Productivity ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Tree Diversity ◽  
Productivity Analysis ◽  
Combine Data ◽  
Relative Measure ◽  
Tree Species Richness ◽  
Global Consistency

AbstractThe publication of Liang et al. (2016, Science) seems to demonstrate very clearly that increasing tree species richness substantially increases forest productivity. To combine data from very different ecoregions, the authors constructed a relative measure of tree species richness. This relative richness however confounds plot-level tree species richness and the polar-tropical gradient of tree species richness. We re-analysed their orginal data, computing a regional measure of tree species richness and addressing several other issues in their analysis. We find that there is virtually no effect of relative tree species richness on productivity when computing species richness at the local scale. Also, different ecoregions have very different relationships between tree species richness and productivity. Thus, neither the “global” consistency nor the actual effect can be confirmed.

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