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Science 29 August 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5330, pp. 1302 - 1305
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5330.1302
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Reports

The Effects of Plant Composition and Diversity on Ecosystem Processes

David U. Hooper, * Peter M. Vitousek

The relative effects of plant richness (the number of plant functional groups) and composition (the identity of the plant functional groups) on primary productivity and soil nitrogen pools were tested experimentally. Differences in plant composition explained more of the variation in production and nitrogen dynamics than did the number of functional groups present. Thus, it is possible to identify and differentiate among potential mechanisms underlying patterns of ecosystem response to variation in plant diversity, with implications for resource management.

Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Integrative Biology, Room 3060, Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140, USA. E-mail: hooper{at}socrates.berkeley.edu

Volume 277, Number 5330, Issue of 29 August 1997, pp. 1302-1305
©1997 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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