Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
Eastern Forest Threat Assessment Center, Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA.
Nat Commun. 2018 Dec 21;9(1):5436. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07880-w.
Understanding biodiversity-productivity relationships (BPRs) is of theoretical importance, and has important management implications. Most work on BPRs has focused on simple and/or experimentally assembled communities, and it is unclear how these observed BPRs can be extended to complex natural forest ecosystems. Using data from over 115,000 forest plots across the contiguous United States, we show that the bivariate BPRs are positive in dry climates and hump-shaped in mesic climates. When considering other site characteristics, BPRs change to neutral in dry climates and remain hump-shaped in humid sites. Our results indicate that climatic variation is an underlying determinant of contrasting BPRs observed across a large spatial extent, while both biotic factors (e.g., stand age and density) and abiotic factors (e.g., soil properties) can impact BPRs within a given climate unit. These findings suggest that tradeoffs need be made when considering whether to maximize productivity vs. conserve biodiversity, especially in mesic climates.
理解生物多样性-生产力关系（BPRs）具有理论重要性，并具有重要的管理意义。大多数关于 BPRs 的工作都集中在简单的和/或实验组装的群落上，目前还不清楚这些观察到的 BPRs 如何可以扩展到复杂的天然森林生态系统中。本研究使用了来自美国大陆 115000 多个森林样地的数据，结果表明，在干燥气候下，双变量 BPRs 呈正相关，在中湿气候下呈驼峰状。当考虑其他站点特征时，BPRs 在干燥气候下变为中性，而在潮湿地点仍呈驼峰状。本研究结果表明，气候变异性是在大空间范围内观察到的相反 BPRs 的潜在决定因素，而生物因素（如林分年龄和密度）和非生物因素（如土壤特性）都可以在给定的气候单元内影响 BPRs。这些发现表明，在考虑是最大化生产力还是保护生物多样性时，需要权衡取舍，特别是在中湿气候下。
