Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystem Functions

Tom H Oliver; Matthew S Heard; Nick J B Isaac; David B Roy; Deborah Procter; Felix Eigenbrod; Rob Freckleton; Andy Hector; C David L Orme; Owen L Petchey; Vânia Proença; David Raffaelli; K Blake Suttle; Georgina M Mace; Berta Martín-López; Ben A Woodcock; James M Bullock

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2015.08.009

Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystem Functions

Trends Ecol Evol. 2015 Nov;30(11):673-684. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.08.009. Epub 2015 Oct 1.

Authors

Tom H Oliver¹, Matthew S Heard², Nick J B Isaac², David B Roy², Deborah Procter³, Felix Eigenbrod⁴, Rob Freckleton⁵, Andy Hector⁶, C David L Orme⁷, Owen L Petchey⁸, Vânia Proença⁹, David Raffaelli¹⁰, K Blake Suttle¹¹, Georgina M Mace¹², Berta Martín-López¹³, Ben A Woodcock², James M Bullock²

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AH, UK; NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK. Electronic address: t.oliver@reading.ac.uk.
² NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK.
³ Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK.
⁴ University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
⁵ University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
⁶ Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁷ Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁸ Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁹ Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁰ University of York, York, UK.
¹¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
¹² University College London, London, UK.
¹³ Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.

PMID: 26437633
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.08.009

Abstract

Accelerating rates of environmental change and the continued loss of global biodiversity threaten functions and services delivered by ecosystems. Much ecosystem monitoring and management is focused on the provision of ecosystem functions and services under current environmental conditions, yet this could lead to inappropriate management guidance and undervaluation of the importance of biodiversity. The maintenance of ecosystem functions and services under substantial predicted future environmental change (i.e., their 'resilience') is crucial. Here we identify a range of mechanisms underpinning the resilience of ecosystem functions across three ecological scales. Although potentially less important in the short term, biodiversity, encompassing variation from within species to across landscapes, may be crucial for the longer-term resilience of ecosystem functions and the services that they underpin.

Keywords: ecosystem services; functional diversity; recovery; redundancy; resistance; risk.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Biodiversity*
Climate Change
Conservation of Natural Resources / methods
Ecosystem*
Forecasting