The contribution of species richness and composition to bacterial services

Thomas Bell, Jonathan A. Newman, Bernard W. Silverman, Sarah L. Turner and Andrew K. Lilley ()
Additional contact information
Thomas Bell: University of Oxford
Jonathan A. Newman: University of Guelph
Bernard W. Silverman: St. Peter's College
Sarah L. Turner: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Andrew K. Lilley: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Nature, 2005, vol. 436, issue 7054, 1157-1160

Abstract: On the beech Despite their importance, we are only beginning to understand how mixed communities of bacteria operate. There is a good reason for this: the microbial world is remarkably complex and dynamic so it is difficult to design experiments that ask the right questions. Laboratory microcosms are useful but involve small numbers of species in unreal situations. A natural ecosystem that can be manipulated experimentally is available, however. Rainpools that form in bark-lined depressions at the base of European beech trees are communities of up to 72 species, rather than the thousands found in, say, pond water. In this rainpool ecosystem the number of bacterial species (the biodiversity) strongly influences the rate at which the community provides a particular service (in this case, respiration). On this scale at least, species richness determines the level at which an ecosystem can function.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03891 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:436:y:2005:i:7054:d:10.1038_nature03891

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature03891

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().