Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, School of Applied Science, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, New Zealand.
Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, School of Applied Science, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, New Zealand
AoB Plants. 2014 Sep 23;6:plu057. doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plu057.
The relationship between net primary productivity (NPP) and species richness has been the subject of long-running debate. A changing climate gives added impetus to resolving this debate, as it becomes increasingly necessary to predict biodiversity responses that might arise from shifts in productivity or its climatic correlates. It has become increasingly clear that at small scales productivity-species richness relationships (PSRs) are variable, while at macro scales relationships are typically positive. We demonstrate the importance of explicitly considering scale in discussions on PSRs even at large scales by showing that distinct patterns emerge in a global dataset of terrestrial ecoregions when ecoregions are binned into size classes. At all sizes, PSRs in ecoregions are positive, but the strength of the PSR scales positively with ecoregion size. In small ecoregions (10(3)-10(4) km(2)), factors correlating with productivity play only a minor role in species richness patterns, while in large ecoregions (>10(5) km(2)), NPP modelled from remotely sensed data is able to explain most of the variation in species richness. Better understanding the effects of scale on PSRs contributes to the debate on the relationship between species richness and productivity, which in turn allows us to better predict how both long- and short-term biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning might be altered under global change scenarios. This gives focus on future research to clarify causal pathways between species richness and productivity with appropriate attention to scale as an important focusing element.
净初级生产力（NPP）与物种丰富度之间的关系一直是长期争论的主题。不断变化的气候为解决这场争论提供了更多的动力，因为越来越有必要预测由于生产力或其气候相关性的变化而可能产生的生物多样性反应。越来越明显的是，在小尺度上，生产力-物种丰富度关系（PSR）是可变的，而在大尺度上，关系通常是正相关的。我们通过展示在全球陆地生态区数据集上，当生态区按大小类分组时，会出现明显不同的模式，证明了即使在大尺度上，明确考虑尺度在 PSR 讨论中的重要性。在所有大小上，生态区的 PSR 都是正的，但 PSR 与生态区大小的关系呈正相关。在小生态区（10^3-10^4 km^2）中，与生产力相关的因素在物种丰富度模式中只起次要作用，而在大生态区（>10^5 km^2）中，从遥感数据模拟的 NPP 能够解释物种丰富度变化的大部分原因。更好地了解尺度对 PSR 的影响有助于争论物种丰富度和生产力之间的关系，这反过来又使我们能够更好地预测在全球变化情景下，长期和短期生物多样性模式和生态系统功能可能会发生怎样的变化。这使未来的研究重点放在阐明物种丰富度和生产力之间的因果关系上，并适当关注尺度作为一个重要的聚焦因素。
