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Science 26 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5543, p. 741
DOI: 10.1126/science.294.5543.741b
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This Week in Science
Are ecosystems with more plant species more productive? Debate has centered on whether productivity effects attributed to diversity were "sampling effects," sometimes interpreted as experimental artifacts, or as "niche complementarity," which is evidence for positive effects of diversity on productivity. Tilman et al. (p. 843) present the results of a 7-year field experiment in a Minnesota grassland system which show that sampling effects explained much of what happened during years 1 to 3 and that niche complementarity took over in years 5 to 7. High-diversity communities can be markedly more productive than the best-performing monoculture. The results have implications for the likely effects of biodiversity loss on ecosystem function, and hence for applied habitat management and conservation.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
