Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- List of Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1. Opening Remarks -- PART 1 Empirical Progress -- 2. Biodiversity, Composition, and Ecosystem Processes: Theory and Concepts -- Introduction -- Definitions of Diversity -- Problems Related to Experiments and Observations -- Diversity, Productivity, and Resource Dynamics -- Sampling Effect Models -- Niche Differentiation Models -- Diversity and Stability -- Measures of Stability -- Components of Temporal Stability -- Diversity and Temporal Stability in Multispecies Models -- Summary -- Acknowledgments -- 3. Experimental and Observational Studies of Diversity, Productivity, and Stability -- Diversity and Stability -- Diversity, Productivity, and Nutrient Dynamics -- New Results from the Cedar Creek Biodiversity Experiment -- Methods -- Soil Nitrate -- Community Cover and Biomass -- Species Number and Composition -- Weedy Invasion and Fungal Pathogens -- Patterns in Native Grassland -- Summary and Synthesis -- Acknowledgments -- 4. Biodiversity and the Functioning of Grassland Ecosystems: Multi-Site Comparisons -- Introduction -- The BIODEPTH Project -- Multiple Influences on Productivity -- Differences between Locations -- Species Richness versus Functional Groups -- Richness versus Composition -- Effects of Nitrogen Fixers -- The Sampling Effect and Biodiversity Mechanisms -- Testing the Sampling Effect -- Summary of the BIODEPTH Results -- Comparisons with Related Studies -- Relationships within and between Sites -- Summary -- Acknowledgments -- 5. Autotrophic-Heterotrophic Interactions and Their Impacts on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning -- Introduction -- Fundamentals -- Classes of Trophically Defined Functional Groups -- The Producer-Decomposer Codependency (PDC) -- Fundamental Trophic Structure.

Heterotrophic Diversity and Ecosystem Functioning -- Decomposers and Producers Affect Each Other via Carbon Exchange -- Consumers Affect the Biomass of Producers and Decomposers -- Trophic Structure Influences Rates of Material Cycling -- Heterotrophic Diversity Affects Levels and Stability of Ecosystem Processes -- Heterotrophs Modulate Producer Diversity Effects -- Summary of Empirical Findings -- Implications for Autotroph-Only Models -- Decomposers -- Trophic Levels -- Material Pools -- Discussion -- 6. Empirical Evidence for Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationships -- Introduction -- Plant Diversity Effects on Ecosystem Functioning -- General Patterns under Uniform Conditions -- General Patterns under Variable Conditions -- Biodiversity Effects among Trophic Levels -- Review of Empirical Studies -- Importance of Biological Interactions -- Designing Empirical Studies to Measure Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationships -- Relevance of Existing Studies -- Suggestions for Future Studies -- Acknowledgments -- 7. The Transition from Sampling to Complementarity -- Conclusions -- PART 2 Theoretical Extensions -- 8. Introduction to Theory and the Common Ecosystem Model -- The Common Ecosystem Model -- Summary of the Basic Model -- 9. Successional Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning -- Introduction -- The Successional Niche in a Simple Mechanistic Ecosystem Model -- Case Studies -- Results -- Competition-Colonization in a Simple Mechanistic Ecosystem Model -- Local versus Global Performance -- Cases Considered -- Results -- Conclusions -- 10. Environmental Niches and Ecosystem Functioning -- Introduction -- Environmental Niches -- Temporal Niches -- Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Niches -- Ecosystem Functioning -- Ecosystem Functioning with Spatial Niches -- Ecosystem Functioning with Temporal Niches: Lottery Models.

Ecosystem Functioning with Temporal Niches: a Mediterranean Ecosystem -- Discussion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix -- 11. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: The Role of Trophic Interactions and the Importance of System Openness -- Introduction -- The Sampling Effect Model and Community Assembly -- Importance of Trophic Complexity and System Openness -- Toward an Ecosystem Model with Trophic Interactions -- Case I: Ecosystem Closed at Top, Open at Bottom -- Case II: Ecosystem Closed at Bottom, Open at Top -- Discussion -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- PART 3 Applications and Future Directions -- 12. Linking Soil Microbial Communities and Ecosystem Functioning -- Introduction -- Challenges in Linking Microbial Communities and Ecosystem Functioning -- Application of Macroscale Diversity Theory to Microorganisms -- Microbial Ecology Contribution to the Study of Ecosystem Functioning -- Ecosystem Science and Microbial Ecology -- Linking Microbial Community Composition and Ecosystem Functioning: A Review of Concepts and Models -- Broad versus Narrow Processes -- Application of Physiological Ecology -- Microbial Strategies: Physiological Constraints and Trade-Offs -- Timeline of Microbial Response: Conceptual Model of Microbial Role in Ecosystem Functioning -- Microbial Response: Four Phases -- Microbial Community Response to Modulator versus Resource Change -- Relevance to the Timescale of Global Changes -- Conclusions and Future Research Needs -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Linking Microbial Community Composition and Ecosystem Functioning: Incorporating Microbial Dynamics in the Common Ecosystem Model -- 13. How Relevant to Conservation Are Studies Linking Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning? -- Introduction -- Conservation Philosophies and Ecological Science.

Studies of Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationships: Origins and Recent Critiques -- Four Unresolved Issues -- Relating Biodiversity Theory and Experiments to Losses in Biodiversity Caused by Humans -- Where Should Biodiversity Research Move in the Future If It Is to Best Address Conservation Problems? -- Do Conservationists Need the Results of Biodiversity Experiments to Justify Their Work? -- Acknowledgments -- 14. Looking Back and Peering Forward -- References -- Index -- Figures -- Figure 2.1. Sampling effect model of exploitative competition for a single limiting resource. -- Figure 2.2. A niche differentiation model of exploitative competition for two essential resources. -- Figure 2.3. Niche differentiation in response to spatial heterogeneity in limiting physical factors. -- Figure 2.4. Niche differentiation for species competing for a single limiting resource in a spatially heterogeneous habitat. -- Figure 2.5. The stability of single- and multispecies communities. -- Figure 2.6. Effects of diversity on population and community stability. -- Figure 3.1. Diversity and stability under drought in Minnesota grasslands. -- Figure 3.2. Total plant community biomass and treatment means across experimental manipulations. -- Figure 3.3. Extractable soil nitrate concentrations in Biodiversity I. -- Figure 3.4. Biodiversity I: total plant cover in 1995 -- total plant biomass in 1998. -- Figure 3.5. Average percent cover and dominance-diversity curve for the highest diversity treatment of Biodiversity I. -- Figure 3.6. The relationship between abundance of the species of Biodiversity I in low-diversity versus highest-diversity plots. -- Figure 3.7. Number of nonplanted species invading the various diversity treatments of Biodiversity I in 1996 and 1997.

Figure 3.8. Correlations between plant species diversity in native savanna grassland openings and total cover of the plant community or extractable nitrate in the rooting zone. -- Figure 4.1. Multiple control of the productivity of the BIODEPTH plant assemblages. -- Figure 4.2. Aboveground productivity declines with the loss of species richness and functional groups. -- Figure 5.1. Fundamental trophic groups. -- Figure 5.2. Fundamental trophic structure. -- Figure 5.3. The relationship between consumer heterotrophic species richness and standing producer biomass. -- Figure 5.4. Patterns of production versus the number of species per trophically defined functional group of protistan consumer species. -- Figure 5.5. Heterotroph interactions with producer diversity. -- Figure 5.6. The relationship between biomass production and simultaneous variation in producer and decomposer diversity. -- Figure 6.1. Processes involved in the assembly of regional and local species pools and local plant communities. -- Figure 6.2. Processes leading to observed biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. -- Figure 6.3. Two possibilities for sampling species from a pool. -- Figure 6.4. "Species number x difference" design plane to define treatments. -- Figure 7.1. A trajectory from the Lotka-Volterra competition equations. -- Figure 7.2. The Law of Constant Final Yield. -- Figure 7.3. The transition from sampling mechanism to niche for a low-diversity model. -- Figure 7.4. The transition from sampling mechanism to niche for a high-diversity model. -- Figure 7.5. The transient occurrence of an inverse relationship between number of species and yield from a two-species model of successional diversity. -- Figure 9.1. Steady-state relationship between living biomass and years since disturbance. -- Figure 9.2. Steady-state T/ha living carbon in Case I.

Figure 9.3. Steady-state kg/m2 total carbon (living plus organic matter) in Case II.