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Article: Some implications of direct interactions for community species diversity.
- Article from:
- Ecology
- Article date:
- October 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Ecological Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INTRODUCTION
Species diversity is much more than a quantitative descriptor of the number of species present in a particular community. It has functional significance that helps determine the present performance, and likely the future species composition, of a community. This idea has been popularized recently as experimental work suggests there is a strong relationship between species diversity and aspects of community function (Naeem et al. 1994, Tilman and Downing 1994, Tilman et al. 1996). By experimentally lowering species diversity, these studies have shown that community performance can be compromised (e.g., by reducing total community biomass and ...