Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
PLoS Biol. 2011 Apr;9(4):e1000606. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000606. Epub 2011 Apr 5.
Difficulties in scaling up theoretical and experimental results have raised controversy over the consequences of biodiversity loss for the functioning of natural ecosystems. Using a global survey of reef fish assemblages, we show that in contrast to previous theoretical and experimental studies, ecosystem functioning (as measured by standing biomass) scales in a non-saturating manner with biodiversity (as measured by species and functional richness) in this ecosystem. Our field study also shows a significant and negative interaction between human population density and biodiversity on ecosystem functioning (i.e., for the same human density there were larger reductions in standing biomass at more diverse reefs). Human effects were found to be related to fishing, coastal development, and land use stressors, and currently affect over 75% of the world's coral reefs. Our results indicate that the consequences of biodiversity loss in coral reefs have been considerably underestimated based on existing knowledge and that reef fish assemblages, particularly the most diverse, are greatly vulnerable to the expansion and intensity of anthropogenic stressors in coastal areas.
理论和实验结果的推广困难引发了关于生物多样性丧失对自然生态系统功能影响的争议。本研究通过对珊瑚礁鱼类群落的全球调查表明，与之前的理论和实验研究相反，在这个生态系统中，生态系统功能（以现存量衡量）与生物多样性（以物种和功能丰富度衡量）呈非饱和方式增长。本野外研究还表明，在这个生态系统中，生物多样性和人类种群密度对生态系统功能存在显著的负交互作用（例如，在相同的人类密度下，生物多样性更高的珊瑚礁的现存量减少幅度更大）。人类活动与捕捞、沿海开发和土地利用压力源有关，目前影响着全球超过 75%的珊瑚礁。研究结果表明，基于现有知识，珊瑚礁生物多样性丧失的后果被大大低估了，并且珊瑚礁鱼类群落，尤其是最多样化的鱼类群落，极易受到沿海地区人为压力源扩张和强度增加的影响。
