The Effects of Plant Composition and Diversity on Ecosystem Processes

Abstract

The relative effects of plant richness (the number of plant functional groups) and composition (the identity of the plant functional groups) on primary productivity and soil nitrogen pools were tested experimentally. Differences in plant composition explained more of the variation in production and nitrogen dynamics than did the number of functional groups present. Thus, it is possible to identify and differentiate among potential mechanisms underlying patterns of ecosystem response to variation in plant diversity, with implications for resource management.