Although researchers have long known that biodiversity tends to stabilize plant productivity over time, it wasn\u2019t clear if the stabilizing effect occurred during extreme weather events or after. A study from the University of Minnesota reveals the answer at last, according to a release: Biodiversity provides resistance during extreme events, which acts as a productivity stabilizer. <\/p>\n
Researchers compiled results from 46 grassland study sites and used a five-point scale to express the spectrum from extremely dry to extremely wet. These rankings were compared to the amount of above-ground plant material produced by the grasslands, i.e. productivity, at different biodiversity levels. <\/p>\n
Scientists found that grassland plots having only one or two species experienced a 50 percent change, whereas the plots with 16 to 32 species experienced a 25 percent change. Researchers expected that grassland plots with more biodiversity would show more resistance to climate change and less of a decrease in productivity during extreme events, but results showed that resistance, not resilience, was the primary mechanism that stabilized grassland productivity in extreme times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although researchers have long known that biodiversity tends to stabilize plant productivity over time, it wasn\u2019t clear if the stabilizing effect occurred during extreme weather events or after. A study from the University of Minnesota reveals the answer at last, according to a release: Biodiversity provides resistance during extreme events, which acts as a productivity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":23547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[135,345,103,331],"class_list":["post-23548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-atmosphere","category-news","tag-biodiversity","tag-earth-atmosphere","tag-news-2","tag-university-of-minnesota"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\n