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Science 26 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5543, pp. 804 - 808
DOI: 10.1126/science.1064088
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Review

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges

M. Loreau,1* S. Naeem,2 P. Inchausti,1 J. Bengtsson,3 J. P. Grime,4 A. Hector,5 D. U. Hooper,6 M. A. Huston,7 D. Raffaelli,8 B. Schmid,9 D. Tilman,10 D. A. Wardle4

The ecological consequences of biodiversity loss have aroused considerable interest and controversy during the past decade. Major advances have been made in describing the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem processes, in identifying functionally important species, and in revealing underlying mechanisms. There is, however, uncertainty as to how results obtained in recent experiments scale up to landscape and regional levels and generalize across ecosystem types and processes. Larger numbers of species are probably needed to reduce temporal variability in ecosystem processes in changing environments. A major future challenge is to determine how biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem processes, and abiotic factors interact.

1 Laboratoire d'Ecologie, UMR 7625, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, F-75230 Paris Cedex 05, France.
2 Department of Zoology, University of Washington, 24 Kincaid Hall, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA.
3 Department of Ecology and Crop Production Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7043, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
4 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
5 NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berks, SL5 7PY, UK.
6 Department of Biology, Western Washington University, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225-9160, USA.
7 Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6400, USA.
8 Environment Department, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK.
9 Institut für Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
10 Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Loreau{at}ens.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)