Terrestrial land-cover type richness is positively linked to landscape-level functioning

Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments have shown that local
species richness promotes ecosystem functioning and stability. Whether
this also applies under real-world conditions is still debated. Here, we
focus on larger scales of space, time and ecological organization. We
develop a quasi-experimental design in which we relate land-cover type
richness as measure of landscape richness to 17-year time series of
satellite-sensed functioning in 4,974 landscape plots 6.25 or 25 ha in
size. We choose plots so that landscape richness is orthogonal to land
cover-type composition and environmental conditions across climatic
gradients. Landscape-scale productivity and temporal stability increase
with landscape richness, irrespective of landscape plot size. Peak season
near-infrared surface albedo, which is relevant for surface energy
budgets, is higher in mixed than in single land-cover type landscapes.
Effect sizes are as large as those reported from BEF-experiments,
suggesting that landscape richness promotes landscape functioning at
spatial scales relevant for management.