Ecology: Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: Current knowledge and future challenges

M. Loreau, S. Naeem, P. Inchausti, J. Bengtsson, J. P. Grime, A. Hector, D. U. Hooper, M. A. Huston, D. Raffaelli, B. Schmid, D. Tilman, D. A. Wardle

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

3515 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ecological consequences of biodiversity loss have aroused considerable interest and controversy during the past decade. Major advances have been made in describing the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem processes, in identifying functionally important species, and in revealing underlying mechanisms. There is, however, uncertainty as to how results obtained in recent experiments scale up to landscape and regional levels and generalize across ecosystem types and processes. Larger numbers of species are probably needed to reduce temporal variability in ecosystem processes in changing environments. A major future challenge is to determine how biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem processes, and abiotic factors interact.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)804-808
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume294
Issue number5543
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 26 2001
Externally publishedYes

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