Historical context modifies plant diversity–community productivity relationships in alpine grassland

While most studies yield positive relationships between biodiversity (B) and ecosystem functioning (EF), awareness is growing that BEF relationships can vary with ecological context. The awareness has led to increased efforts to understand how contemporary environmental context modifies BEF relationships, but the role of historical context, and the mechanisms by which it may influence biodiversity effects, remains poorly understood.
We examined how historical context alters plant diversity‒community productivity relationships via plant species interactions in alpine grassland. We also tested how historical context modifies interactions between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which can potentially mediate the above processes.
We studied biodiversity effects on plant community productivity at two grassland sites with different histories related to grazing intensity — heavy versus light livestock grazing — but similar current management. We assembled experimental communities ...