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Grassland species loss resulting from reduced niche dimension

Author

Listed:
  • W. Stanley Harpole

    (University of California Irvine, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, California 92697, USA)

  • David Tilman

    (Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA)

Abstract

Too much of a good thing? What explains biodiversity? One theory holds that in ecosystems in which various resources are limiting, diversity will increase, because the conditions will favour species adapted to cope with the dearth of water, phosphorus, nitrogen and so on. In conditions of abundance, productivity will go up, but the winners will be those few species that can grow fastest and swamp the competition. Although resource limitation is not the only factor that could explain species richness, Harpole and Tilman show that it explains the plant biodiversity in experimental grass plots in Sedgwick, California — and could explain results in the oldest ecological experiment in the world, at Rothamsted in the United Kingdom. These results also provide an alternative explanation for the biodiversity loss caused by human actions that tend to simplify habitats, such as nutrient eutrophication.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Stanley Harpole & David Tilman, 2007. "Grassland species loss resulting from reduced niche dimension," Nature, Nature, vol. 446(7137), pages 791-793, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:446:y:2007:i:7137:d:10.1038_nature05684
    DOI: 10.1038/nature05684
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    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin T. Phalan, 2018. "What Have We Learned from the Land Sparing-sharing Model?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, May.
    2. Ting-Shuai Shi & Scott L. Collins & Kailiang Yu & Josep Peñuelas & Jordi Sardans & Hailing Li & Jian-Sheng Ye, 2024. "A global meta-analysis on the effects of organic and inorganic fertilization on grasslands and croplands," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Zhuocheng Liu & Yangang Yang & Shuangxuan Ji & Di Dong & Yinruizhi Li & Mengdi Wang & Liebao Han & Xueping Chen, 2021. "Effects of Elevation and Distance from Highway on the Abundance and Community Structure of Bacteria in Soil along Qinghai-Tibet Highway," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-30, December.
    4. Shengman Lyu & Jake M. Alexander, 2022. "Competition contributes to both warm and cool range edges," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Pinelopi K. Papaporfyriou & Eirini Sarrou & Eleni Avramidou & Eleni M. Abraham, 2020. "Abundance and Phenotypic Diversity of the Medicinal Sideritis Scardica Griseb. in Relation to Floristic Composition of Its Habitat in Northern Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, March.

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