Animals and fungi foster forest multifunction­ality

A new study shows that, in addition to the diversity of tree species, the variety of animal and fungus species also has a decisive influence on the performance of forests. Forest performance comprises many facets besides timber production, such as carbon storage and climate regulation. The study is based on ten years of research in species-rich subtropical forests. An interdisciplinary and international team of researchers has published the results in the new issue of Nature Communications. They illustrate that biodiversity must be viewed as a whole in order to maintain the performance of forests.

Original publication:

Schuldt A, Assmann T, Brezzi M, Buscot F, Eichenberg D, Gutknecht J, Härdtle W, He JS, Klein AM, Kühn1 P Liu X, Ma KP, Niklaus PA, Pietsch KA, Purahong W, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Schmid B, Scholten T, Staab M, Tang ZY, Trogisch S, von Oheimb G, Wirth C, Wubet T, Zhu CD, Bruelheide H (2018): Biodiversity across trophic levels drives multifunctionality in highly diverse forests. Nature Communications 9, Article number: 2989 (2018). Open. Published: 31 July 2018
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05421-z
www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05421-z

Link to the press release of iDiv

https://www.idiv.de/de/news/news_single_view/news_article/animals_and.html