Mechanistic links between coexistence, productivity, and stability in experimental grasslands

The escalating biodiversity crisis underscores the urgent need for a unified framework that links the mechanisms maintaining biodiversity to its functional consequences. However, studies of species coexistence and biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning have largely progressed independently. Here, using long-term data from five grassland biodiversity experiments, we quantified "coexistence potential" (i.e., the degree to which niche differences exceed fitness differences) and tested its relationships with biodiversity effects on both ecosystem productivity (via complementarity and selection effects) and stability (via species asynchrony and species stability). We found that the relationships within the coexistence-productivity-stability triad were overall positive. These patterns were mechanistically explained by phylogenetic and trait composition: Phylogenetically and functionally more diverse communities supported higher coexistence potential and greater productivity, while those dominated by species with stronger root-mycorrhizal collaboration and larger seeds exhibited enhanced productivity and stability. Our work provides integrative empirical evidence linking biodiversity maintenance to ecosystem functioning, demonstrating that conserving phylogenetically and functionally diverse communities, particularly those including collaborative species, is key to sustaining biodiverse, productive, and stable ecosystems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2026-05-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2602893123
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Mechanistic links between coexistence, productivity, and stability in experimental grasslands

Yanhao Feng, Alexandra Weigelt, Mingyu Luo, Libin Zhou et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
article

Mechanistic links between coexistence, productivity, and stability in experimental grasslands

Yanhao Feng, Alexandra Weigelt, Mingyu Luo, Libin Zhou, Z Wang, Jasper van Ruijven, Pubin Hong, Forest ISBELL, Maowei Liang, Bernhard Schmid, Dylan Craven, Yuanyuan Huang, Lin Jiang, Mengjiao Huang, Eric Allan, Yann Hautier, Nico Eisenhauer, Jane A. Catford, Shaopeng Wang, Christiane Roscher, Chen Yang, Peter B. Reich, David Tilman, Michel Loreau
article en

Abstract

The escalating biodiversity crisis underscores the urgent need for a unified framework that links the mechanisms maintaining biodiversity to its functional consequences. However, studies of species coexistence and biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning have largely progressed independently. Here, using long-term data from five grassland biodiversity experiments, we quantified "coexistence potential" (i.e., the degree to which niche differences exceed fitness differences) and tested its relationships with biodiversity effects on both ecosystem productivity (via complementarity and selection effects) and stability (via species asynchrony and species stability). We found that the relationships within the coexistence-productivity-stability triad were overall positive. These patterns were mechanistically explained by phylogenetic and trait composition: Phylogenetically and functionally more diverse communities supported higher coexistence potential and greater productivity, while those dominated by species with stronger root-mycorrhizal collaboration and larger seeds exhibited enhanced productivity and stability. Our work provides integrative empirical evidence linking biodiversity maintenance to ecosystem functioning, demonstrating that conserving phylogenetically and functionally diverse communities, particularly those including collaborative species, is key to sustaining biodiverse, productive, and stable ecosystems.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 123(22)
Universidad Mayor (CL), Australian National University (AU), University of Bern (CH), University of Minnesota (US), Georgia Institute of Technology (US), Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (US), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE), King's College London (GB), Utrecht University (NL), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Peking University (CN), German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE), Basque Centre for Climate Change (ES), Ministry of Agriculture (EE), Ecologie & Evolution (FR), Institute of Plant Biology (HU), Watershed (GB), Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology (CN), Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (GB), Station d’Écologie Théorique et Expérimentale (FR), Centre for Research and Development (ZW), Ecosystem Sciences (AU), Wageningen University & Research (NL), Leipzig University (DE)
National Science Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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