Axis 2 : Mechanistic linkages and feedbacks between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and nature’s contributions to people

We decipher and understand the processes and dynamic feedbacks between multi-trophic assemblages, ecosystem functioning and nature’s contributions to people in a changing world. More specifically,

We aim at identifying key drivers and indirect pathways ...
We aim to understand and disentangle the direct effect of climate change on ecosystem functions and nature’s contributions to people, and its indirect effects that are mediated by biodiversity. The latter can depend on (i) functional complementarity, (ii) plant-soil feedback or (iii) cascading effects from predators to plant-herbivore interactions. We consider interactions with other global changes, like invasions, land use changes and resulting changed resource availability ; or increasing recreation activities and resulting interference with animal distribution. We study transient dynamics, stability of service delivery and resilience to extreme events.

We work on extrapolations to larger scales ...
Biodiversity is a key driver of ecosystem functioning and processes with cascading effects on nature’s contributions to people. We test whether effects found in greenhouse experiments scale to in-situ experiments and landscapes where spatial configuration and connectivity likely interfere. We use simulation models to explore how small scale effects could affect dynamics at larger spatial and temporal scales.

We study trade-offs between ecosystem performance and stability ...
We identify the potential trade-offs between the performance of ecosystems (the magnitude of ecosystem functions) and their stability under increasingly variable environmental conditions (in space and time). The response-effect trait framework has proven useful for identifying the trade-offs between plant productivity and resistance or resilience to extreme climatic events. We test whether such relationships hold for other trophic groups (e.g. decomposers) or multi-trophic assemblages and other ecosystem functions.

Keywords :

Functional complementarity, response-effect trait framework, plant-soil linkages and feedbacks, cascading effects in food webs, herbivore-plant interactions, interacting global change drivers (climate change, land use change, invasion, recreation activities), transient dynamics, stability of service delivery and resilience to extreme events, trade-offs between functioning and stability

Key papers :
  • Martinez-Almoyna, C., Thuiller, W., Chalmandrier, L., Clément, J.C., Foulquier, A., Ohlmann, M., Zinger, L. & Münkemüller, T. (2019). Multi-trophic beta-diversity mediates the effect of environmental gradients on the turnover of multiple ecosystem functions. Functional Ecology, 33(10) 2053-2064.
  • T. Datry, A. Foulquier, et al. (2018). A global analysis of terrestrial plant litter dynamics in non-perennial waterways. Nature Geoscience, 11, 497–503.
  • Brun, P., Zimmermann, N.E., Graham, C.H., Lavergne, S., Pellissier, L., Münkemüller, T. & Thuiller, W. The biodiversity-productivity relationship varies across diversity dimensions. Nature Communications. 10:5691 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13678-1