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Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

YOU’VE HEARD THAT VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE, BUT DID YOU KNOW IT’S ALSO ESSENTIAL TO LIFE?  LEARN WHY BIODIVERSITY IS CRUCIAL TO ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING ON TODAY’S ENVIRONMINUTE.

ANDY HECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH, SWITZERLAND STUDIES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES - FUNCTIONS SUCH AS DECOMPOSITION RATES AND PRODUCTIVITY.

HIS RESEARCH USUALLY INVOLVES DETERMINING HOW MANY SPECIES INFLUENCE EACH ECOSYSTEM PROCESS ON ITS OWN, BUT IN REALITY, MULTIPLE PROCESSES HAPPEN AT ONCE.  SO HECTOR CROSS-REFERENCED HIS DATA TO GET A MORE ACCURATE PICTURE.

HECTOR: AND WHEN WE DID THAT, WHAT WE FOUND WAS THAT THE MORE ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES THAT YOU CONSIDER, THE MORE SPECIES YOU NEED IN TOTAL.

IN LIGHT OF THIS, HECTOR SAYS THAT PREVIOUS RESEARCH - WHICH ZOOMED IN ON ONE PROCESS AT A TIME - MAY HAVE UNDERSTATED THE ENORMOOUS IMPACTS OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS.

THE ENVIRONMINUTE IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE HEINZ FAMILY PHILANTHROPIES AND THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS.  LEARN MORE BY VISITING ENVIRONMINUTE-DOT-COM. 

Read Hector’s study in Nature.

Learn more about biodiversity science at Diversitas.