Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
Sci Adv. 2017 Apr 5;3(4):e1601880. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1601880. eCollection 2017 Apr.
Carbon storage by ecosystems is valuable for climate protection. Biodiversity conservation may help increase carbon storage, but the value of this influence has been difficult to assess. We use plant, soil, and ecosystem carbon storage data from two grassland biodiversity experiments to show that greater species richness increases economic value: Increasing species richness from 1 to 10 had twice the economic value of increasing species richness from 1 to 2. The marginal value of each additional species declined as species accumulated, reflecting the nonlinear relationship between species richness and plant biomass production. Our demonstration of the economic value of biodiversity for enhancing carbon storage provides a foundation for assessing the value of biodiversity for decisions about land management. Combining carbon storage with other ecosystem services affected by biodiversity may well enhance the economic arguments for conservation even further.
生态系统的碳储存对于气候保护具有重要价值。生物多样性保护可能有助于增加碳储存，但这种影响的价值一直难以评估。我们利用来自两个草原生物多样性实验的植物、土壤和生态系统碳储存数据表明，更高的物种丰富度会增加经济价值：从 1 到 10 增加物种丰富度的经济价值是从 1 到 2 增加物种丰富度的两倍。随着物种的积累，每个额外物种的边际价值下降，反映了物种丰富度与植物生物量生产之间的非线性关系。我们证明了生物多样性对增强碳储存的经济价值，为评估生物多样性对土地管理决策的价值提供了基础。将碳储存与受生物多样性影响的其他生态系统服务结合起来，可能会进一步增强保护的经济论据。
