Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Synthesis and Perspectives [Paperback]

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic areas in contemporary ecology. Increasing domination of ecosystems by humans is steadily transforming them into depauperate systems. How will this loss of biodiversity affect the functioning and stability of natural and managed ecosystems? This volume provides the first comprehensive and balanced coverage of recent empirical and theoretical research on this question. It reviews the evidence, provides bases for the resolution of the debate that has divided scientists on these issues, and offers perspectives on how current knowledge can be extended to other ecosystems, other organisms and other spatial and temporal scales. It cuts across the traditional division between community ecology and ecosystem ecology, and announces a new ecological synthesis in which the dynamics of biological diversity and the biogeochemical functioning of the Earth system are merged.

Contributors
PART I. Introduction
1. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: the emergence of a synthetic ecological framework,S. Naeem, M. Loreau, and P. Inchausti
2. The debate on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning,H. A. Mooney
PART II. Core areas of debate: biodiversity and ecosystem processes in grassland ecosystems
3. Plant diversity and composition: effects on productivity and nutrient dynamics of experimental grasslands,D. Tilman et al.
4. Biodiversity manipulation experiments: studies replicated at multiple sites,A. Hector et al.
5. Evaluating the relative strengths of biotic versus abiotic controls on ecosystem processes,M. A. Huston and A. C. McBride
6. The design and analysis of biodiversity experiments,B. Schmid et al.
PART III. New perspectives on ecosystem stability
7. A new look at the relationship between diversity and stability,M. Loló&