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Science 26 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5543, pp. 843 - 845
DOI: 10.1126/science.1060391
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Reports

Diversity and Productivity in a Long-Term Grassland Experiment

David Tilman,1* Peter B. Reich,2 Johannes Knops,3 David Wedin,4 Troy Mielke,1 Clarence Lehman1

Plant diversity and niche complementarity had progressively stronger effects on ecosystem functioning during a 7-year experiment, with 16-species plots attaining 2.7 times greater biomass than monocultures. Diversity effects were neither transients nor explained solely by a few productive or unviable species. Rather, many higher-diversity plots outperformed the best monoculture. These results help resolve debate over biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, show effects at higher than expected diversity levels, and demonstrate, for these ecosystems, that even the best-chosen monocultures cannot achieve greater productivity or carbon stores than higher-diversity sites.

1 Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
2 Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
3 School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
4 School of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tilman{at}umn.edu

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