Microorganisms have a pivotal role in the functioning of ecosystems. Recent studies have
shown that microbial communities harbour keystone taxa, which drive community …

Approximately 25 years ago, ecologists became increasingly interested in the question of
whether ongoing biodiversity loss matters for the functioning of ecosystems. As such, a new …

The impact of local biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning is well established, but the
role of larger-scale biodiversity dynamics in the delivery of ecosystem services remains …

Extensively managed grasslands are recognized globally for their high biodiversity and their
social and cultural values. However, their capacity to deliver multiple ecosystem services …

Causal effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions can be estimated using experimental
or observational designs—designs that pose a tradeoff between drawing credible causal …

A rich body of knowledge links biodiversity to ecosystem functioning (BEF), but it is primarily
focused on small scales. We review the current theory and identify six expectations for scale …

Organisms—especially microbes—tend to live together in ecosystems. While some of these
ecosystems are very biodiverse, others are not, and while some are very stable over time …

Biodiversity experiments have shown that species loss reduces ecosystem functioning in
grassland. To test whether this result can be extrapolated to forests, the main contributors to …

Contents Summary 50 I. Introduction 50 II. Drivers of the diversity–productivity relationship
51 III. Patterns of the diversity–productivity relationship 55 IV. Responses of mixed stands to …

Recent studies have revealed many potential benefits of increasing plant diversity in natural
ecosystems, as well as in agroecosystems and production forests. Plant diversity potentially …