Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across gradients in spatial scale (literature synthesis)

Biodiversity is critical for sustaining ecosystem functioning. Our inference, however, is based mainly on studies that have kept spatial scale constant and environmental heterogeneity to a minimum. We thus still know little about how the role of biodiversity changes with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity. In this study we used computer simulations, a bacteria experiment and a literature synthesis (this dataset) to test how the relationship between species richness and ecosystem functioning could be expected to change when local patches are aggregated into landscapes of increasing size.

生物多样性（Biodiversity）对维持生态系统功能（ecosystem functioning）至关重要。然而，我们的推论主要基于那些维持空间尺度恒定、将环境异质性（environmental heterogeneity）降至最低的研究。因此，我们对生物多样性的作用如何随空间尺度与环境异质性发生变化仍知之甚少。本研究采用计算机模拟、细菌实验与文献综合分析（即本数据集），旨在探究当局地斑块（local patches）聚合为面积逐渐增大的景观时，物种丰富度（species richness）与生态系统功能之间的关联会如何变化。