Diversity of protists and bacteria determines predation performance and stability

Predation influences prey diversity and productivity while it effectuates the flux and reallocation of organic nutrients into biomass at higher trophic levels. However, it is unknown how bacterivorous protists are influenced by the diversity of their bacterial prey. Using 456 microcosms, in which different bacterial mixtures with equal initial cell numbers were exposed to single or multiple predators (Tetrahymena sp., Poterioochromonas sp. and Acanthamoeba sp.), we showed that increasing prey richness enhanced production of single predators. The extent of the response depended, however, on predator identity. Bacterial prey richness had a stabilizing effect on predator performance in that it reduced variability in predator production. Further, prey richness tended to enhance predator evenness in the predation experiment including all three protists predators (multiple predation experiment). However, we also observed a negative relationship between prey richness and predator production in multiple predation experiments. Mathematical analysis of potential ecological mechanisms of positive predator diversity—functioning relationships revealed predator complementarity as a factor responsible for both enhanced predator production and prey reduction. We suggest that the diversity at both trophic levels interactively determines protistan performance and might have implications in microbial ecosystem processes and services.     

Biodiversity loss, trophic skew and ecosystem functioning

Experiments testing biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning have been criticized on the basis that their random‐assembly designs do not reflect deterministic species loss in nature. Because previous studies, and their critics, have focused primarily on plants, however, it is underappreciated that the most consistent such determinism involves biased extinction of large consumers, skewing trophic structure and substantially changing conclusions about ecosystem impacts that assume changing plant diversity alone. Both demography and anthropogenic threats render large vertebrate consumers more vulnerable to extinction, on average, than plants. Importantly, species loss appears biased toward strong interactors among animals but weak interactors among plants. Accordingly, available evidence suggests that loss of a few predator species often has impacts comparable in magnitude to those stemming from a large reduction in plant diversity. Thus, the dominant impacts of biodiversity change on ecosystem functioning appear to be trophically mediated, with important implications for conservation.     

刈割、围封、放牧三种利用方式下草原生态系统的多功能性与植物物种多样性之间的关系

随着全球变化对生物多样性的影响不断加剧, 生物多样性与生态系统功能之间相互关系(BEF)的研究显得极为重要。过去的20多年, BEF的研究大多集中在对物种多样性与单一或少数生态系统功能之间关系的探讨, 但生态系统最为重要的价值是同时维持多种服务和功能的能力, 基于此, 该文首次在国内引入近年来不断完善的生态系统多功能性(multifunctionality)的概念, 并对目前主流的评价方法进行了改进, 从而对内蒙古三种利用方式(刈割、围封、放牧)下的草地群落进行了多功能性评价, 并探讨了多功能性与物种多样性之间的关系。结果显示本研究改进的方法和目前主流方法评价得出的多功能性指数在样方和样地尺度上都有很高的相关性(R² = 0.6956, p < 0.0001; R² = 0.9231, p < 0.0001), 表明该文作者改进后的方法是可靠的。重度放牧的草地群落物种多样性水平最低, 绝大多数土壤功能指标较差, 表现出退化特征; 7年的围封和刈割群落均有较高的物种多样性水平和改善的土壤功能指标; 三者的多功能性指数为刈割(0.2178) >围封(0.0704) >放牧(-0.8031)。植被样方主要沿水肥梯度分布; 多样性指数中, 均匀度指数(Pielou index)和丰富度指数(Margelf index)对多功能性的影响作用最大, 均为样方尺度(R² = 0.1871, p < 0.0001; R² = 0.1601, p < 0.0001)小于样地尺度(R² = 0.5921, p = 0.0093; R² = 0.7499, p = 0.0007), 有尺度依赖性; 多功能性在样方和样地尺度上均与物种均匀度呈线性正相关关系, 而与物种丰富度呈单峰曲线关系。该文研究结果表明, 相对于重度放牧和围封, 刈割更有利于维持该地区生态系统的多功能性; 物种丰富度适中且物种分布均匀的生态系统可能有更好的多功能性。