Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Main Street, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire AB41 6AA, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Jul 12;365(1549):2107-16. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0022.
Anthropogenic activity is currently leading to dramatic transformations of ecosystems and losses of biodiversity. The recognition that these ecosystems provide services that are essential for human well-being has led to a major interest in the forms of the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship. However, there is a lack of studies examining the impact of climate change on these relationships and it remains unclear how multiple climatic drivers may affect levels of ecosystem functioning. Here, we examine the roles of two important climate change variables, temperature and concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, on the relationship between invertebrate species richness and nutrient release in a model benthic estuarine system. We found a positive relationship between invertebrate species richness and the levels of release of NH(4)-N into the water column, but no effect of species richness on the release of PO(4)-P. Higher temperatures and greater concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a negative impact on nutrient release. Importantly, we found significant interactions between the climate variables, indicating that reliably predicting the effects of future climate change will not be straightforward as multiple drivers are unlikely to have purely additive effects, resulting in increased levels of uncertainty.
人为活动正导致生态系统的剧烈变化和生物多样性的丧失。由于认识到这些生态系统提供了对人类福祉至关重要的服务，人们对生物多样性与生态系统功能关系的形式产生了浓厚的兴趣。然而，目前还缺乏研究气候变化对这些关系的影响，也不清楚多种气候驱动因素可能如何影响生态系统功能的水平。在这里，我们研究了两个重要的气候变化变量——温度和大气二氧化碳浓度——对底栖河口模型系统中无脊椎动物物种丰富度和养分释放之间关系的影响。我们发现无脊椎动物物种丰富度与 NH4-N 向水柱中释放的水平之间呈正相关，但物种丰富度对 PO4-P 的释放没有影响。较高的温度和较高的大气二氧化碳浓度对养分释放有负面影响。重要的是，我们发现气候变量之间存在显著的相互作用，这表明可靠地预测未来气候变化的影响将不会是简单的，因为多个驱动因素不太可能具有纯粹的加性效应，从而导致不确定性水平增加。
