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Fig. 5.2. Effects of copper (a) and heat (b) stress upon ability of soils containing different levels
of biodiversity to decompose grass residues. Source: Griffiths et al. (2000).
prevailing levels of diversity in most systems are sufficiently high so that the
repertoire is complete, there is an adequate number of trophic groups with
commensurate interaction pathways, and there is a significant degree of
redundancy in the decomposer communities. To date, most of the studies
demonstrating a significant effect of biodiversity on decomposition only do
so under circumstances where diversity is artificially low. It is unclear
whether there are actual diversity thresholds below which OM dynamics are
impaired, and which occur outside of the laboratory or field experiment.
The issue of diversity effects upon resilience also warrant further
research. Above all, more high-quality research is needed with innovative
experimental designs in order to understand the mechanistic basis of
diversity-function relationships.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department for grant-in-aid,
and Heikki Setälä for many stimulating discussions.
References
Andrén, O., Bengtsson, J. and Clarholm, M. (1995) Biodiversity and species
redundancy among litter decomposers. In: Collins, H.P., Robertson, G.P. and
Klug, M.J. (eds) The Significance and Regulation of Soil Biodiversity . Kluwer
Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp.141-151.
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