Integrating community assembly and biodiversity to better understand ecosystem function: the Community Assembly and the Functioning of Ecosystems (CAFE) approach |
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| Authors: | Katherine H Bannar‐Martin Colin T Kremer SK Morgan Ernest Mathew A Leibold Harald Auge Jonathan Chase Steven AJ Declerck Nico Eisenhauer Stanley Harpole Helmut Hillebrand Forest Isbell Thomas Koffel Stefano Larsen Anita Narwani Jana S Petermann Christiane Roscher Juliano Sarmento Cabral Sarah R Supp |
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| Institution: | 1. Quantitative Assessment Methods Section, Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nanaimo, BC, Canada;2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA;3. Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA;4. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA;5. Department of Community Ecology, UFZ, Helmholtz‐Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany;6. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany;7. Department of Computer Sciences, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany;8. Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands;9. Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany;10. Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany;11. Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle‐Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany;12. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl‐von‐Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany;13. Helmholtz‐Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, University of Oldenburg [HIFMB], Oldenburg, Germany;14. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Saint Paul, MN, USA;15. UMR Eco&Sols, Campus Supagro, Montpellier, France;16. Synthesis Center of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Leipzig, Germany;17. University of Trento, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, Trento, Italy;18. Eawag, Aquatic Ecology Department, Dübendorf, Switzerland;19. Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria;20. Department of Physiological Diversity, UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany;21. Synthesis Center of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity, Ecosystem Modeling, Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology (CCTB), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany;22. School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA |
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| Abstract: | The research of a generation of ecologists was catalysed by the recognition that the number and identity of species in communities influences the functioning of ecosystems. The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) is most often examined by controlling species richness and randomising community composition. In natural systems, biodiversity changes are often part of a bigger community assembly dynamic. Therefore, focusing on community assembly and the functioning of ecosystems (CAFE), by integrating both species richness and composition through species gains, losses and changes in abundance, will better reveal how community changes affect ecosystem function. We synthesise the BEF and CAFE perspectives using an ecological application of the Price equation, which partitions the contributions of richness and composition to function. Using empirical examples, we show how the CAFE approach reveals important contributions of composition to function. These examples show how changes in species richness and composition driven by environmental perturbations can work in concert or antagonistically to influence ecosystem function. Considering how communities change in an integrative fashion, rather than focusing on one axis of community structure at a time, will improve our ability to anticipate and predict changes in ecosystem function. |
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| Keywords: | Biodiversity community assembly composition dispersal ecosystem function metacommunity Price equation |
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