A new analysis of data from a number of sources, by researchers at Smithsonian and the University of Michigan, found that biodiversity plays an even greater role in ecosystem resilience and overall health than previously thought—more important than even temperature and nutrients. The analysis was published in the journal Nature.
“We now have strong evidence from models, controlled experiments, and studies of natural systems–all of which agree that ecosystems with a greater variety of life are more productive than those with less biological diversity,” said Casey Godwin, a co-author and ecologist at the University of Michigan. “Therefore, if we want to maintain the productivity and functioning of Earth’s ecosystems, conserving their biodiversity is critically important.”
Previous studies of biodiversity’s effects tended to be very controlled, and so researchers were never entirely clear on what was actually happening “in the rough and tumble of wild nature,” Smithsonian said in story on the analysis. This time, “biologists synthesized data from 67 observational studies of nature in the field, covering grasslands, forests, freshwater environments and marine environments. The studies spanned all seven continents and contained data from over 600,000 sampling locations around the world.”
In every ecosystem the team assessed, higher biodiversity meant higher biomass and healthier ecosystems, even when researchers controlled for other environmental factors, like temperature and nutrients.
“Experiments have been incredibly valuable for showing us how and why biodiversity can influence basic ecological processes like the production of biomass, which is important to people because it produces the oxygen we breathe, makes the food we eat and purifies the water we drink,” said co-author Brad Cardinale, an ecologist and University of Michigan professor. “But experiments are probably too small and too short to reveal the full importance of biodiversity in real ecosystems, where plants and animals have evolved and interacted with each other for thousands of years.”