Jack-of-all-trades effects drive biodiversity–ecosystem multifunctionality relationships in European forests

Fons van Der Plas (1, 2) , Peter Manning (1, 2) , Eric Allan (1) , Michael Scherer-Lorenzen (3) , Kris Verheyen (4) , Christian Wirth (5, 6) , Miguel Angel Zavala (7) , Andy Hector (8) , Evy Ampoorter (4) , Landen Baeten (4) , Luc Barbaro (9) , Jürgen Bauhus (3) , Raquel Benavides (3) , Adam Benneter (3) , Felix Berthold (10) , Damien Bonal (11) , Olivier Bouriaud (12) , Helge Bruelheide (6, 10) , Filippo Bussotti (13) , Monique Carnol (14) , Bastien Castagneyrol (9) , Yohan Charbonnier (9) , David Coomes (15) , Andrea Coppi (13) , Cristina C. Bastias (16) , Seid Muhie Dawud (17) , Hans de Wandeler (18) , Timo Domisch (19) , Leena Finér (19) , Arthur Gessler (20) , André Granier (11) , Charlotte Grossiord (21) , Virginie Guyot (9, 22) , Stephan Hättenschwiler (23) , Hervé Jactel (9) , Bogdan Jaroszewicz (24) , François-Xavier Joly (23) , Tommaso Jucker (15) , Julia Koricheva (25) , Harriet Milligan (25) , Sandra Müller (3) , Bart Muys (18) , Diem Nguyen (26) , Martina Pollastrini (13) , Karsten Raulund-Rasmussen (17) , Federico Selvi (13) , Jan Stenlid (26) , Fernando Valladares (16, 27) , Lars Vesterdal (17) , Dawid Zielínski (24) , Markus Fischer (1)

1 UNIBE - Universität Bern / University of Bern
2 BIK-F - Senckenberg biodiversität und klima forschungszentrum
3 University of Freiburg [Freiburg]
4 UGENT - Universiteit Gent = Ghent University
5 Leipzig University / Universität Leipzig
6 iDiv - German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
7 UAH - Universidad de Alcalá - University of Alcalá
8 University of Oxford
9 BioGeCo - Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés
10 MLU - Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg
11 EEF - Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières [devient SILVA en 2018]
12 USU - Universitatea Stefan cel Mare Suceava
13 UniFI - Università degli Studi di Firenze = University of Florence = Université de Florence
14 Université de Liège
15 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]
16 MNCN - Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales [Madrid]
17 UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet
18 KU Leuven - Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
19 LUKE - Natural Resources Institute Finland
20 Institut fédéral de recherches WSL
21 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
22 DYNAFOR - Dynamiques Forestières dans l'Espace Rural
23 CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
24 Uniwersytet Warszawski
25 RHUL - Royal Holloway [University of London]
26 SLU - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences = Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
27 URJC - Universidad Rey Juan Carlos [Madrid]

There is considerable evidence that biodiversity promotes multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality), thus ensuring the delivery of ecosystem services important for human well-being. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are poorly understood, especially in natural ecosystems. We develop a novel approach to partition biodiversity effects on multifunctionality into three mechanisms and apply this to European forest data. We show that throughout Europe, tree diversity is positively related with multifunctionality when moderate levels of functioning are required, but negatively when very high function levels are desired. For two well-known mechanisms, ‘complementarity’ and ‘selection’, we detect only minor effects on multifunctionality. Instead a third, so far overlooked mechanism, the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ effect, caused by the averaging of individual species effects on function, drives observed patterns. Simulations demonstrate that jack-of-all-trades effects occur whenever species effects on different functions are not perfectly correlated, meaning they may contribute to diversity–multifunctionality relationships in many of the world’s ecosystems.

Mots clés: Ecosystem; Multifunctionality

Domaines: Biodiversité; Ecosystèmes; Sylviculture, foresterie

Fons van Der Plas, Peter Manning, Eric Allan, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Kris Verheyen, et al.. Jack-of-all-trades effects drive biodiversity–ecosystem multifunctionality relationships in European forests. Nature Communications, 2016, Vol. 7, pp. 1-11. ⟨10.1038/ncomms11109⟩. ⟨hal-01441562⟩