Well insured: Forests with many tree species grow more consistently

Species richness stabilises forests against extreme climate conditions

Based on a press release by iDiv

The annual growth of forests fluctuates due to extreme climate conditions such as drought and heavy rainfall. These fluctuations are less pronounced in species-rich forests than in those with low species richness. Furthermore, forests with many different tree species produce more wood. It is not only a question of the species’ richness, but also the diversity of their functional characteristics. This has been shown by an international research team led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS) and with the participation of the Professorship of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation (TU Dresden). The results of the study have been published in the journal Science Advances. They provide significant impetus for ways in which forestry can promote more reliable productivity.

See more details in the media release of iDiv:

https://www.idiv.de/en/news/news_single_view/2298.html

Original publication: 

Schnabel, F., Liu, X., Kunz, M., Barry, K. E., Bongers, F. J, Bruelheide, H., Fichtner, A., Härdtle, W., Li, S., Pfaff, C.-T., Schmid B., Schwarz J. A., Tang, Z., Yang^, B., Bauhus, J., von Oheimb, G., Ma, K., Wirth, C. (2021). Species richness stabilizes productivity via asynchrony and drought-tolerance diversity in a large-scale tree biodiversity experiment. Science Advances 7: eabk 1643. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk1643.

Further publications on this topic:

Bongers, F. J., Schmid, B., Bruelheide, H., Bongers, F., Li, S., von Oheimb, G., Li, Y., Cheng, A., Ma, K., Liu, X. (2021). Functional diversity effects on productivity increase with age in a forest biodiversity experiment. Nature Ecology & Evolution 5: 1594–1603. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01564-3.

Fichtner, A., Schnabel, F., Bruelheide, H., Härdtle, W., Kunz, M., Mausolf, K., Schuldt, A., von Oheimb, G. (2020). Neighbourhood diversity mitigates drought impacts on tree growth. Journal of Ecology 108: 865-875. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13353

Jansen, K., von Oheimb, G., Bruelheide, H., Härdtle, W., Fichtner, A. (2021). Tree species richness modulates water supply in the local neighbourhood: Evidence from wood δ¹³C signatures in a large-scale subtropical tree experiment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 20203100. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.3100