Harpole Lab

Special Seminar:

Biodiversity – Productivity Relationships: Shifting a Paradigm

The relationship between biodiversity and the rate of biomass production has been a major target of ecological research. The empirical patterns of biodiversity across gradients of productivity and more recently, the question whether biodiversity drives productivity are highly debated, as both variables are of fundamental interest for understanding ecosystem dynamics. Recent advances suggest that biodiversity and productivity are both constrained by resource supply and that resource ratios are the key to understand the relationship between biodiversity and productivity. I will present empirical tests of these concepts in different ecosystems, which aim at linking the biodiversity – ecosystem functioning idea with ecological stoichiometry. These tests comprise microcosm experiments with pelagic model metacommunities, analyses of large-scale data sets and grassland biodiversity manipulation experiments. I will show how resource stoichiometry and biodiversity are linked through resource use efficiency.