The Relationship Between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in an Experimental Species-Poor Saltmarsh Community: The Roles of Physical Stress and Disturbance

Although the central focus of ecology has long been the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, this relationship has rarely been explored in species-poor communities such as salt marshes, which have the potential to shed new light on this debate. We conducted two microcosm experiments, each testing a different environmental variable (salinity or disturbance) and its interaction with the plant community’s richness and species composition, using all possible combinations of the three sedge species found in the pioneer plant community in the Yangtze River Estuary. The relationships between diversity and productivity were weak and non-significant, possibly due to intense competition among the sedges. Species composition played a more important role in determining productivity. Moreover, biodiversity effects were found to be environment-dependent. Salinity stress increased the selection effect, while disturbance tended to increase both selection and complementarity effects. Interestingly, the correlation between biodiversity and stability was non-linear and presented different patterns in the salinity and disturbance experiments. Our results show that species-poor systems with low functional group diversity may exhibit weak relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning during the establishment phase under controlled experimental conditions. In this ecosystem, species richness rarely impacted biomass, which was instead primarily driven by species composition and environmental conditions.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Diversity

• Publication date

  2026-02-07

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/d18020106
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Wetland productivity and stability increase more with average plant size than with plant functional diversity

  2025cited by this paper
• Nitrogen and CO2 enrichment interact to decrease biodiversity impact on complementarity and selection effects

  2025cited by this paper
• Meta-analysis reveals global variations in plant diversity effects on productivity

  2025cited by this paper
• Anthropogenic Forcing on the Coevolution of Tidal Creeks and Vegetation in the Dongtan Wetland, Changjiang Estuary

  2025cited by this paper
• Structure and Function of Restored and Natural Salt Marshes: Implications for Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptive Potential

  2024cited by this paper
• Drought weakens the positive effect of plant diversity on community biomass

  2024cited by this paper
• Stability in plant–pollinator communities across organizational levels: present, gaps, and future

  2024cited by this paper
• Ecophysiological responses of Phragmites australis populations to a tidal flat gradient in the Yangtze River Estuary, China

  2024cited by this paper
• A global meta-analysis on the drivers of salt marsh planting success and implications for ecosystem services

  2024cited by this paper
• Partitioning changes in ecosystem productivity by effects of species interactions in biodiversity experiments

  2024cited by this paper
• Ecosystem functions of plant diversity: Comparisons from a large‐scale marsh restoration experiment in California, USA

  2024cited by this paper
• Effects of plant diversity on productivity strengthen over time due to trait-dependent shifts in species overyielding

  2024influential reference
• The Relationships between Plant Community Stability and Diversity across Different Grassland Types and Their Association with Environmental Factors in the Habahe Forest Area, Xinjiang

  2024cited by this paper
• Genetic diversity matters for restoration of a threatened saltmarsh plant in harsh environments

  2024cited by this paper
• The multiple-mechanisms hypothesis of biodiversity–stability relationships

  2024cited by this paper
• Experimental impacts of grazing on grassland biodiversity and function are explained by aridity

  2023cited by this paper
• Soil nutrient heterogeneity alters productivity and diversity of experimental plant communities under multiple global change factors

  2023cited by this paper
• Revisiting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning through the Lens of Complex Adaptive Systems

  2023cited by this paper
• Beyond the Hydro-Regime: Differential Regulation of Plant Functional Groups in Seasonal Ponds

  2023cited by this paper
• Diversity-stability relationships across organism groups and ecosystem types become decoupled across spatial scales.

  2023cited by this paper
• Clarifying the effect of biodiversity on productivity in natural ecosystems with longitudinal data and methods for causal inference

  2023cited by this paper
• Environmental heterogeneity modulates the effect of plant diversity on the spatial variability of grassland biomass

  2023cited by this paper
• Biodiversity showed positive effects on resistance but mixed effects on resilience to climatic extremes in a long-term grassland experiment.

  2022cited by this paper
• Biodiversity stabilizes plant communities through statistical-averaging effects rather than compensatory dynamics

  2022cited by this paper
• Biodiversity–stability relationships strengthen over time in a long-term grassland experiment

  2022cited by this paper
• Resilience and Species Accumulation across Seafloor Habitat Transitions in a Northern New Zealand Harbour

  2022cited by this paper
• Response Patterns of Fen Sedges to a Nutrient Gradient Indicate both Geographic Origin-Specific Genotypic Differences and Phenotypic Plasticity

  2022cited by this paper
• Community biomass is driven by dominants and their characteristics – The insight from a field biodiversity experiment with realistic species loss scenario

  2022cited by this paper
• Species richness and asynchrony maintain the stability of primary productivity against seasonal climatic variability

  2022cited by this paper
• Linking changes in species composition and biomass in a globally distributed grassland experiment.

  2022cited by this paper
• Foundational biodiversity effects propagate through coastal food webs via multiple pathways

  2022cited by this paper
• Competition rather than facilitation affects plant performance across an abiotic stress gradient in a restored California salt marsh

  2022cited by this paper
• Detecting and interpreting higher-order interactions in ecological communities.

  2022cited by this paper
• Monitoring the Monthly Expansion Pattern of Pioneer Vegetation in Tidal Flats Using a Terrestrial Laser Scanner

  2022cited by this paper
• Removing subordinate species in a biodiversity experiment to mimic observational field studies

  2022cited by this paper
• Assessing the Impacts of Tidal Creeks on the Spatial Patterns of Coastal Salt Marsh Vegetation and Its Aboveground Biomass

  2022cited by this paper
• Incorporating Effect Factors into the Relationship between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (BEF)

  2022cited by this paper
• Recovering ecosystem functions in a restored salt marsh by leveraging positive effects of biodiversity

  2021cited by this paper
• Warming effects on grassland productivity depend on plant diversity

  2021cited by this paper
• Biodiversity promotes ecosystem functioning despite environmental change

  2021influential reference
• Disturbance reshapes the productivity–diversity relationship

  2021cited by this paper
• Pioneer salt marsh species Scirpus mariqueter disperses quicker in summer with seed contribution from current and last year

  2021cited by this paper
• A direct comparison of the effects and mechanisms between species richness and genotype richness in a dominant species on multiple ecosystem functions

  2021cited by this paper
• Estimating Waves and Currents at the Saltmarsh Edge Using Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter Data

  2021cited by this paper
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: Have our experiments and indices been underestimating the role of facilitation?

  2021cited by this paper
• The species composition—ecosystem function relationship: A global meta-analysis using data from intact and recovering ecosystems

  2020cited by this paper
• Scaling‐up biodiversity‐ecosystem functioning research

  2020cited by this paper
• How to strive for balance of coastal wind energy development with waterbird conservation in the important coastal wetlands, a case study in the Chongming Islands of East China

  2020cited by this paper
• Role of delta‐front erosion in sustaining salt marshes under sea‐level rise and fluvial sediment decline

  2020cited by this paper
• Do biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments inform stakeholders how to simultaneously conserve biodiversity and increase ecosystem service provisioning in grasslands?

  2020cited by this paper
• Harsh environmental regimes increase the functional significance of intraspecific variation in plant communities

  2020cited by this paper
• An excess of niche differences maximizes ecosystem functioning

  2020cited by this paper
• Synchrony matters more than species richness in plant community stability at a global scale

  2020influential reference
• Does functional redundancy affect ecological stability and resilience? A review and meta‐analysis

  2020cited by this paper
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in naturally assembled communities

  2019cited by this paper
• How to estimate complementarity and selection effects from an incomplete sample of species

  2019influential reference
• Disentangling the Effects of Disturbance from Those of Dominant Tall Grass Features in Driving the Functional Variation of Restored Grassland in a Sub-Mediterranean Context

  2019cited by this paper
• Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change

  2019cited by this paper
• Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems

  2019cited by this paper
• Lost in trait space: species-poor communities are inflexible in properties that drive ecosystem functioning

  2019cited by this paper
• The results of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiments are realistic

  2019cited by this paper
• Global evidence of positive biodiversity effects on spatial ecosystem stability in natural grasslands

  2019cited by this paper
• Intraspecific Root Trait Variability Along Environmental Gradients Affects Salt Marsh Resistance to Lateral Erosion

  2019cited by this paper
• The Future of Complementarity: Disentangling Causes from Consequences.

  2019influential reference
• The dimensionality of stability depends on disturbance type.

  2019cited by this paper
• Identifying the tree species compositions that maximize ecosystem functioning in European forests

  2018cited by this paper
• Functional composition has stronger impact than species richness on carbon gain and allocation in experimental grasslands

  2018cited by this paper
• Biodiversity increases and decreases ecosystem stability

  2018cited by this paper
• The distribution and role of functional abundance in cross-scale resilience.

  2018cited by this paper
• Climate mediates the biodiversity–ecosystem stability relationship globally

  2018cited by this paper
• Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning respond unimodally to environmental stress.

  2018influential reference
• A brief introduction to mixed effects modelling and multi-model inference in ecology

  2018cited by this paper
• A guide to analyzing biodiversity experiments

  2017cited by this paper
• Biodiversity effects in the wild are common and as strong as key drivers of productivity

  2017cited by this paper
• Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning in a 15-year grassland experiment: Patterns, mechanisms, and open questions

  2017cited by this paper
• Functional trait dissimilarity drives both species complementarity and competitive disparity

  2017cited by this paper
• Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment.

  2017cited by this paper
• Integrative modelling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness

  2016cited by this paper
• Understanding the value of plant diversity for ecosystem functioning through niche theory

  2016cited by this paper
• Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought

  2016influential reference
• Salinity and disturbance mediate direct and indirect plant–plant interactions in an assembled marsh community

  2016influential reference
• Per capita interactions and stress tolerance drive stress-induced changes in biodiversity effects on ecosystem functions

  2016cited by this paper
• Marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: what’s known and what’s next?

  2015cited by this paper
• Flooding disturbances increase resource availability and productivity but reduce stability in diverse plant communities

  2015influential reference
• The quest for a mechanistic understanding of biodiversity–ecosystem services relationships

  2015cited by this paper
• Phylogenetic relatedness and the determinants of competitive outcomes.

  2014cited by this paper
• Functional redundancy and stability in plant communities

  2013cited by this paper
• Understanding diversity–stability relationships: towards a unified model of portfolio effects

  2012cited by this paper
• Productivity Is a Poor Predictor of Plant Species Richness

  2011cited by this paper
• Methane emission from Yangtze estuarine wetland, China

  2009cited by this paper
• Biodiversity effects on productivity and stability of marine macroalgal communities: the role of environmental context

  2009cited by this paper
• Salt Marsh Communities

  2008cited by this paper
• Partitioning selection and complementarity in biodiversity experiments

  2001influential reference
• THE ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGES IN BIODIVERSITY: A SEARCH FOR GENERAL PRINCIPLES101

  1999cited by this paper
• Biodiversity and ecosystem productivity in a fluctuating environment: the insurance hypothesis.

  1999cited by this paper
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: a mechanistic model.

  1998cited by this paper
• Plant diversity and ecosystem productivity: theoretical considerations.

  1997cited by this paper
• Productivity and sustainability influenced by biodiversity in grassland ecosystems

  1996cited by this paper
• Declining biodiversity can alter the performance of ecosystems

  1994cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.