Investigating the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality: challenges and solutions
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Summary: Extensive research shows that more species‐rich assemblages are generally more productive and efficient in resource use than comparable assemblages with fewer species. But the question of how diversity simultaneously affects the wide variety of ecological functions that ecosystems perform remains relatively understudied. It presents several analytical and empirical challenges that remain unresolved. In particular, researchers have developed several disparate metrics to quantify multifunctionality, each characterizing different aspects of the concept and each with pros and cons. We compare four approaches to characterizing multifunctionality and its dependence on biodiversity, quantifying (i) magnitudes of multiple individual functions separately, (ii) the extent to which different species promote different functions, (iii) the average level of a suite of functions and (iv) the number of functions that simultaneously exceeds a critical threshold. We illustrate each approach using data from the pan‐European BIODEPTH experiment and the R multifunc package developed for this purpose, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and implement several methodological improvements. We conclude that an extension of the fourth approach that systematically explores all possible threshold values provides the most comprehensive description of multifunctionality to date. We outline this method and recommend its use in future research.
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Similar complementarity has been observed in diverse assemblages where species can interact.
“similar complementarity has been observed in diverse assemblages where species can interact”
From Biodiversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality across trophic levels and habitats (2015) · cites this paper as [23]
The results support species richness as an important driver of ecosystem functioning and reveal an overlooked effect of total abundance on supporting and provisioning services.
“Overall, our results support the important role of species richness 1-2,14- 17, 22, 25 as a driver of ecosystem functioning, while also highlighting the overlooked effect of total abundance on supporting and provisioning services.”
From Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality (2016) · cites this paper as [22]
These results provide evidence that biodiversity is an important driver of ecosystem functioning relative to environmental factors, for multiple services in realistic landscapes and not only individual functions in small-scale experiments.
“These results provide evidence that biodiversity is an important driver of ecosystem functioning in comparison with environmental factors, not only for individual functions in small-scale experiments 7,8 , but also for multiple ecosystem services in realistic landscapes (see also refs.15, 22).”
From Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality (2016) · cites this paper as [22]
The EMF index, calculated from functions that are often correlated with one another, does not provide a single best metric of EMF.
“We acknowledge that the EMF index, calculated from functions that are often correlated with one other (Supplementary Figs 13 and 14), does not provide a single best metric of EMF21.”
From The links between ecosystem multifunctionality and above- and belowground biodiversity are mediated by climate (2015) · cites this paper as [21]
There are several ways to estimate the relationship between biodiversity and EMF: the single functions approach, turnover approach, averaging approach and threshold approach.
“There are several ways to estimate the relationship between biodiversity and EMF21: the single functions approach, turnover approach, averaging approach and threshold approach.”
From The links between ecosystem multifunctionality and above- and belowground biodiversity are mediated by climate (2015) · cites this paper as [21]
Each approach to estimating the biodiversity-EMF relationship has strengths and weaknesses.
“Because each approach has its strengths and weaknesses21, we used three distinct methods to calculate multifunctionality: single functions approach, an averaging approach, and a multiple thresholds approach.”
From The links between ecosystem multifunctionality and above- and belowground biodiversity are mediated by climate (2015) · cites this paper as [21]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Byrnes, J. E. K., Gamfeldt, L., Isbell, F., Lefcheck, J. S., Griffin, J. N., Hector, A., Cardinale, B. J., Hooper, D. U., Dee, L. E., & Emmett Duffy, J.
- Affiliations
- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (US)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- William & Mary (US)
- Swansea University (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Western Washington University (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science College of William & Mary Gloucester Point VA 23062 USA
- Corresponding author
- Byrnes, Jarrett E. K.
- Venue
- Methods in Ecology and Evolution
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-01-17
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 111-124
- ISSN
- 2041-210X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2117867889
- Cited by
- 942
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 184 · 2025: 156 · 2024: 117 · 2023: 119 · 2022: 75 · 2021: 64 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 7 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 13.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Methods in Ecology and Evolution (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1144085, 1031061, 1046121)
- Microsoft Research
- Vetenskapsrådet
- Division of Environmental Biology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
- Keywords
- biodiversity, ecosystem multifunctionality, species richness, ecosystem functioning, threshold analysis, species assemblages
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