HS PRO-SD

The relationship between species diversity and biomass/productivity has been
emerged as a major scientific question in ecology. Figuring out the
relationship was essential to understand mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance.
Positive, negative, and no relationships were found in controlled experiments
and observational researches. However, increasing evidence suggested that the effects
of species diversity on aboveground biomass and productivity would be
influenced by biotic and abiotic factors. It was also not clear that whether
scale dependent effects on aboveground biomass and productivity. Using generalized
linear regression model (GLM) and Structural equation model (SEM) to determine
relationships between species diversity and productivity/ aboveground biomass
under the different scales and figure out effects of abiotic and biotic factors
on species diversity and ecosystem functioning. Our results showed that
positive relationship was found between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
(BEF) according species diversity and aboveground biomass/productivity. Different
sampling scales may have an impact on the relationship between species
diversity and productivity. Besides, we also found that
elevation was a key
factor affecting both biomass and productivity. These results suggest that
species diversity is not the only factor affecting biomass and productivity,
and implies that the positive correlation between species diversity and ecosystem
functioning is mediated by abiotic factors.